Intelligence Doesn't Mix With Nature
by Short Moose
Summary: A new girl shows up at Dakota Union High. But what will happen when Virgil and Richie find out who she really is? This is part 1/10 of the Andi Hojem series. I don't own anything/anyone except for Andi.
1. Chapter 1

"Welcome to Dakota Union High, Miss Hojem." The principle said, shaking my hand and leading me out the door. "Your homeroom is room 1C, and your new teacher will give you your schedule."

"Thank you, sir." I said, turning down the hallway he pointed me to. When I got to 1C, right before I opened the door, this kid with dreadlocks came running down the hall and ran into me. Yes, I know what you're thinking, 'Two minutes into school, and I've already been run over. Just my luck'.

"I am so sorry," he started, helping me up.

"It's okay, probably my fault somehow." I said, picking my backpack up off the floor.

"Hey," he said, getting my attention before opening the door. "I haven't seen you here before, you new?"

"Unfortunately," I said, sticking out my hand. "Andrea Hojem."

"Virgil Hawkins." he shook my hand. I smiled as I opened the door to find the teacher staring at us.

"Mr. Hawkins! You're late!" She yelled with this sort of, 'Imma eat you', face.

"Sorry, Mrs. Colman, it'll never happen again." He quickly said.

"I'm sure," she pointed him inside. "And who are you?"

"I'm Andrea Hojem, the new transfer." I said, not looking her in the eye.

"Indeed," She put her hand around my neck and brought me inside. "Everyone, this Andrea Hojem, she's the new transfer from," she looked at me for the answer.

"Gotham City," I said to the kids staring at me.

"You can sit down by Foley and Mr. Hawkins, since you two are buddies." Mrs. Colman said harshly, handing me my schedule and sitting down at her desk.

With twenty sets of eyes following me, I made my way towards where Virgil was, and sat across from him. The blonde kid in front of me, took out a spiral notebook and wrote something in it. He pushed it across to me, and it read: _Hey, I'm Richie Foley._

I wrote back to him:_ I'm Andrea Hojem._

Richie:_ Why'd you transfer to Dakota?_

_I was put into a new foster home._

Richie: _Why? I f you don't mind me asking._

_My foster parents died in a house fire. _

Richie:_ Sorry._

_It's cool, they never really liked me anyway._

Richie:_ How'd it happen?_

_Oh, my foster mom fell asleep while she was smoking, and my foster dad went in to save her, but he didn't make it. I had stayed after school that day to help my friend get through her parent's divorce. When I got there, it was just a pile of ashes, and my social worker sent me out of Gotham because no one else would take me in, so she sent me here._

Richie: _Who has you now?_

_This old lady named Ms. Skylar._

Richie: _She's my next-door neighbor._

_Awesome. We can hang out sometime._

Richie: _So, what do you have next?_

_Gym._

Richie:_ Me too._

_Owens?_

Richie:_ Yeah._

_That's amazing, it's like, fate._

That's when the bell rang.


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry for not updating in the longest time. My computer hates me and like to shut off randomly. Thanks for sticking with it though!_

_Shortmoose_

Richie and I walked to the Gym, while Virgil went the other way. When we got there, Richie led me to Mrs. Owens. She had added me to the attendance list, took me into the locker room, gave me a locker, and got me a set of the required gym clothing (a pair of gray shorts, and a gray shirt with the school's emblem). I quickly got changed, and joined the rest of the class.

"Class, this our new student, Andrea Hojem. On other notes, we shall be starting the dance unit today. Yes, I know, very old fashioned, but, it's required. Sorry. Okay, today, we will be learning how to salsa dance. Don't worry, it will be over before you know it. Now partner off. Boy girl. Now choose carefully, this will be your partner for the whole unit."

Of course, since I didn't know anyone, I turned to Richie. "Will you be my partner?"

He just smiled, "'course."

Owens taught, and we listened. That was really all that happened. I mean Richie and I got real close. Makin' fun of the dance style was just part of it. The other was getting to know him. It was really fun. I never expected to have _that_ much fun in only 40 minutes. During the rest of the day, I had Biology with Virgil, Advanced Algebra with Richie, Global with both, Lunch with both, and English with Richie. At the end of the day, all of us walked home together.

As I walked in, Ms. Skylar almost paraded me with a platter full of cookies. "Hello deary, how was you day at school? Cookie?"she totally surprised me.

"Fine, and no thank you, Ms. Skylar, I'm just gonna head up to my room." I backed up the stairs, and thankfully closed my door behind me. I had never had someone try to be so _involved_ with everything that I did. Uncle Alfie would never do that to me. 'Least I don't think so, I haven't seen him since I was like, 5, or in 10 years, whichever you prefer. My window's one of them cool ones, so, when I climb out, I'm on the roof. So, I climbed out, and this voice called out, "What, sneaking out already?"

My head jumped, "Alfie?"

"Sorry, just Richie." I smiled as I turned around to see him leaning out of his window. "So, you've run away before?"

"No," I said, "but, he used to see me on the roof, and ask, 'Sneaking out?'" I looked around nervously at the awkward silence that had followed. "Hey," I finally said. "Wanna come up?"

"Actually, I was gonna meet Virg at the park, you wanna tag along?"

"Am I allowed to?"

"'Course." I smiled, climbed back through my window, somehow avoided Ms. Skylar, and came out to meet Richie. "Okay," he said, as he just noticed something. "It's like, 80 degrees, how are you wearing long sleeves?"

I smirked as we started to walk, "All in good time, my friend. All in good time."


	3. Chapter 3

When Richie and I arrived, Virgil wasn't there. There was a kid on a piece of metal, floating in the air, fighting with a shadow?

"Andrea," Richie said, pushing me back towards where we came from. "You should probably go."

"I can take care of myself, but what about you?" I replied, not realizing what he was going to do.

"Trust me, you have to go." he said quickly, shoving me out of the way of a stray bolt of static electricity.

"Okay, I got the message." I stood up, but didn't leave. See, Richie turned around and ran towards the kid and the shadow, while I hid behind a bush so that I could see what was going to happen. Richie grabbed a grenade like thing from his backpack (which he was carrying the whole time), and threw it at the shadow, but, the shadow dodged it, and the grenade shot ropes around the kid, and he fell to the ground in a struggle. The shadow fell into a pool on the ground and disappeared. Richie was helping the flying kid, when, all of a sudden, I was grabbed from behind. The shadow grabbed me around my waist, pinning my arms down, and covered my mouth. I looked up at the sky, it was going from a beautiful day, to a very dark blue, very quickly. Oh crap, not again. "Mmph!" I said, still struggling.

The shadow surprised me when it said in a male's voice, "What?"

"Mmph!" I tried to say again, but, he was still covering my mouth.

He stopped covering my mouth, "What?"

"I said, 'LET ME GO!" On 'go', a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, and directly hit the shadow, which completely unaffected me. The shadow let go in pain, and I spun out, facing him again. "Never! Ever! Come Near Me Again!" I yelled, thunder and lightning going off because of my anger.

"Andrea?" Richie said, not believing what he just saw.

I turned and gasped. "No," I whispered, then, I quickly turned around and disappeared in a gust of wind. It didn't take long before I appeared in my room. I grabbed my backpack thinking, 'Gotta see him, he's the only one who can help me.' I went through my drawers and picked out a couple days' worth of clothing and packed them. "He knows, Richie knows, he's gonna hate me."

"I wouldn't say that."

I jumped and saw Richie standing against my closed door.

"You don't hate me?" I said, confused at his actions.

"No, I understand." He said, getting off the door. He went over to the window and opened it. The kid from the park came in, gliding on his sewer drain lid?

"Your not alone, Andrea." The kid said.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, backing towards my bed.

"It's me," he said taking off his mask. "Virgil."

"Virgil?"

"Yeah, I have static powers." he held up his hands, and they shot off sparks. "Hence the name, Static Shock."

"I'm really smart." Richie said, pulling out a giant metal bug thing. "This is Backpack, it's linked to my thoughts. So, I can pretty much make it do anything."

I was dumbstruck, until I thought I could trust them, "Can I show you guys something?"

Richie looked at Virgil, "Of course, we're your friends."

"Okay," I breathed deeply. "Richie, you wanted to know why I wear long sleeves in 80 degree weather, well, you're about to find out." I turned around and rolled up my sleeves to as high as I could get them. I turned around and showed them. They looked confused.

"Why would you hide this from us?"

"Where did you get these? The detail is exquisite."

I looked down at my own arms. They were covered with tattoos of vines. They looked so real, sometimes when I'm up at night, they even fool me. "I've had them since," I thought for a minute. "Since I can remember."

"What do you mean?"Virgil asked, and I motioned for the both of them to sit, it's going to be a long story.

"Actually, before I start anything, do y'all want anything. I'm gonna go down and get a drink."

"Do you have any soda?" Richie asked, and I got this smirk on my face.

"If you mean pop, yeah." I smiled. "And you?" I asked Virgil.

"Same thing." I nodded and went down stairs.


	4. Chapter 4

Rolling my sleeves back down, I descended down the stairs, and came out in the hallway that led to the kitchen. "Deary, is that you?"

"Yes, Mrs. Skylar. I just came down for a drink." I said, opening up the refrigerator and grabbing three Cokes.

"I thought you left to go with Richie to the park," she said, the sound of confusion in her voice made me hate to lie to her.

"Mrs. Skylar, I came in with Richie just a minute ago. You must be tired for not noticing me, why don't I get you in bed?" I smiled sincerely, and she believed me.

"You're right deary, I must be tired, and, by golly! It's already six o'clock! I should be in bed." I nodded and led her to her room, and closed the door quietly. I went back to the kitchen, grabbed the drinks, and went beck upstairs.

"Here you are," I said, handing them the cans of Coke. "Finest from the grocery store, picked it out myself." I sat down on the floor across from them. "We all ready?" They nodded, and I took a deep breath, "Okay, well, it all started out when my parents died. They were the cooks for this rich guy, it's been so long I can't even remember his name. They were at the store and this guy was holding up the store, and his partner was going around to round up the people, and I was told that my dad wanted to protect my mom, so, he tackled the guy when he turned around, and the man holding up the register turned around and shot both of my parents. I was only about one year old. The butler person that served said rich guy took care of me for a year. But he kept me under wraps from him and his son. But, one day, his son found me in a hidden room in the butler's quarters. And he promised to keep the secret. About a week later, his father found me. And, he liked me. But, the corporation that he owned found out about me, and they took me. The lab contacted Alva Industries and they said that they have a test subject for them. So, they shipped the 'bang gas' to the corporation, they put me in a green house, and they flooded it with the gas, and kept me in there for a half an hour. They wanted to see if the environment had any effect on what the gas did. And it did have an effect, see, what they didn't realize is that every ten minutes or so, the sprinklers turned on, so, not only am I able to control plants, but, I am also able to change the weather, which is what you saw today in the park. Now, for the next couple weeks, the butler made sure to keep me away from all plants, because he didn't know what I could do yet. He was planning to take me outside to test my powers but a social worker took me away before he could. Until I was five, I had moved around to places like Buffalo and Boston, in New York. None of my foster parents knew what I was, so, I pretty much had to wear a jacket all year long to hide the tattoos. Now, as I grew, so did the vines; it's like they added onto themselves. I never stayed in one house for too long, the longest was three weeks. When I returned to Gotham, I went back. I lived in the house for another year, because they had to find a family for me, and I refused to go back to the orphanage. So, while I was there, the butler and I spent some time together, just seeing what I could do. He took me outside, and, I made everything grow, like, the grass grew as tall as I was, and the trees got bigger. He asked if I could make them smaller, and I did it. Then something sad happened. The social worker had come, and she was taking me away. She came into the back yard, where we were, and she dragged me away. I started crying, and all of a sudden, I remember lightning flashes and a horrible storm just came in out of no where. I didn't know what I was doing, I was only a kid..." I trailed off, I kind of blanked out for a minute, but I came right back when Virgil started to call me. "Sorry. Um, the social worker, God rest her soul, was killed by a lightning bolt. I remember a scream, and loud bangs. I curled up into a ball, closed my eyes, and wished I was somewhere else. And all of a sudden, it was quiet. I looked up and I was in a church. I called out to see if anyone was there, and this man came out from a room with a very surprised look on his face. He said to me, "My child, do you know where you are?" and I shook my head. He took me in, for a while, I don't consider that a house since I lived in the church. He asked me how old I was, and I told him six. Of course I had to tell him, I mean, he did take care of me 'till I was eight. He was fine with it. He put me in a Catholic School system, and he pulled some strings to get me out of Gym, so I could keep covered. Now, the church was still in Gotham, but the bad part of Gotham. That's where I picked up my tricks."

"Tricks?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, you know, fighting back, pick pocketing, the works."

"Pick Pocketing?" Virgil asked.

"Yeah, got pretty good at it too. Of course, I had a reason-"

"Dude, you lived in a church, and you were a pick pocket?"

"See, the higher up Priests, made him retire when I was eight. I went into a state, I wouldn't call depression, but more a mental state of sadness, but only for a short time. I spent my time on the streets, just watching other people pulling their tricks, and I learned it. Sure, I had to out run a couple of people at first, but I got better." I smiled to myself a little, then focused again. "I stayed at the church 'till I was ten, then I ran away. I mostly hid in places like the school locker room after everyone went home. After about five years of that a social worker found me and she put me into the home that I was previously in. Then, after they died, I was put into a community service program, and I was stuck taking care of Mrs. Skylar. And that's my life. Right down to the letter."

Virgil took a deep breath, "Your life has sucked so far."

I laughed, "Yeah, it has, but I know it's going to be better here."

"How?" Richie asked.

"'Cause I'm not leaving Dakota. Not this time."


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning was like any other, got up, got dressed, met Richie outside, and went to school. Last night I realized something: the only people I could trust were the two who actually listened. Over the years, I had tried to tell the people I had almost called friends, but, they all thought I was lying, so I just stopped trying. The rest of the week was pretty much the same, the mention of my powers never came up, which I was happy about by the way, but, I had never realized how many bang babies there were in Dakota, until I noticed how many times Virgil had to go to the "bathroom" during school. Everything was just fine until Mrs. Skylar got sick. They sent her to the hospital two days before Thanksgiving. I stayed up with her that night, talking to her. Then a damned social worker came into the room.

"Mrs. Skylar," she started. "If anything should happen to you, I want you to know that we will take good care of Andrea for you."

"I don't think so," Mrs. Skylar said, a smile creeping on her face, the social worker looking confused and upset, which made me giggle inside, because no one argued with Mrs. Skylar and won. "If and when I pass, Andrea will live in the house whether you like it or not."

"But Mrs.-"

"Did I say you could talk? Now, I am leaving Andrea the house, which is fully payed off, and if the government says otherwise my will will take care of that. So, no longer will you be able to touch another hair on this little girl's head. No longer will you move her from house to house and have her wonder where she would end up next. You can leave now, your services are no longer needed. Good bye. Scoot Scoot, move along." Mrs. Skylar waved the very surprised and confused social worker out of the room, and I just laughed.

"Virginia, I love you." she started to laugh, but ended in a fit of coughs. After she was done, I said, "No matter what you say, I'm staying right here."

"What about school deary? I want you to get the best education."

"Mrs. Skylar, Richie and Virgil are in all of my classes. They can take notes for me, and give me my homework. I'm staying here. It's the least I can do for family."

"Fine. You're just as stubborn as me. Shall we resume our game?" she said, picking up her hand of cards.

"Of, course." I picked up mine. "Do you have any eights?"

"Go fish," I took a card from the pile.

"Hey, Virginia, there's something I've gotta tell you."

"Shoot."

I breathed in deeply, "I never told you this, but, I'm a bang baby."

"Oh, come now. I can't believe that." she said, chuckling.

"I'm not lying. I really am." I rolled up my sleeves to show her the tattoos, and she just laughed.

"Sweetheart, I have one too." She pulled down one side of her collar to show me a tattoo of a flower on her shoulder.

"Never mind then," I said, and we continued to play. I kept my word, and stayed with her all night. Around ten, she fell asleep, but I stayed up and watched her. She quickly turned a ghastly white, and her face fell. I stayed in the same position when her heart monitor crashed. Maybe five minutes later, two doctors rushed in and asked me why I hadn't called them. And I answered, "She didn't tell me to." I got up from the chair I was sitting in, and I went into the bathroom. 'Richie, Richie' I thought, I turned around and a gust of wind took me away again. I ended up in Richie's bedroom. I looked around, there wasn't much computer stuff as I assumed, but the walls were covered with posters, and there were clothes all over the floor. My eyes went to the bed and, found a peacefully sleeping Richie. I really didn't want to wake him, but I needed a hug right now. I went to the side of his bed, and keeled by his head, "Richie, Richie wake up." I whispered.

He stirred, and opened his eyes to see me. "Whoa, Andrea what are you doing here?" He quickly sat up in his bed.

"Mrs. Skylar passed away about ten minutes ago. And I need a hug." He enveloped me in his arms, and I embraced him back tightly, never wanting to let go. I dug my face into his shoulder and I cried. When I started to cry, it started to pour outside. I cried so hard, that I accidentally pushed Richie back down to his bed, with me on top (get your mind out of the gutter!).

Richie didn't seem to mind, because he kept rubbing my back, trying to soothe me. "It's alright, just get it all out. It'll be okay. I'm here for you." He kept calming me down until the both of us fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

I groaned as I opened my eyes. Wait a minute. This isn't my room. And whose arm is around me, holding me protectively? I sat up quickly and looked around the room. I had never seen this place before. I looked down next to me, and I saw Richie. Oh, God no. I jumped from the bed and started to pace around thinking. 'I have to get out of here, before someone finds me.'

"Andrea, are you okay?" Richie asked getting up from the bed himself and walking over to me. "You seem scared."

"Scared? I'm down right freaked. I don't remember coming here. I have to get home!" I tried to get out the door but I heard a woman call Richie. So, I ran to the window, but it was locked. I felt like a bird in a cage. "Home, home, home!" I whispered, and turned around, but I bumped into Richie, so, when I disappeared, Richie came with me. But, we didn't end up the house next-door, we ended up in Gotham. In that house where I learned to walk and talk. We landed in the giant backyard. I looked around frantically trying to see where I landed. "Richie?" I yelled, trying to see if he landed somewhere other than where I did.

"I'm over here!" I followed his voice, and found him by the old well.

"Oh, thank God you're okay." I hugged him tightly. "I thought you might have landed somewhere else."

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around from the large green house to the even larger mansion.

"We're in Gotham, baby! Where everything happens! No matter who you are, where you're from, it's gonna happen! No doubt!" I said, obviously proud of where I had grown up.

"Who's there?" Some man said, coming out of the house.

"Shit," I whispered. "Richie, get in the well."

"What?"

"Get in the well, now!" I physically pushed him in the well. It was a shot well, more for decoration then actual usage.

"What about you?"

"Just gotta trust me, okay?" I smiled, and he nodded. "Now get down, make sure you are as far as you can go." He nodded again and crouched down. I went and hid behind a Geranium bush which was as tall as I was standing up. While the man was slowly passing, I was thinking about everything he had ever done for me. He pretty much raised me, except for after I went to the church. But, Uncle Alfie took care of me when he did. And I knew he would do it all over again in a second if he could. I saw my plan go into action when Alfie had turned his back to me. I carefully took out the watch he always carried in his pocket. It was never anything special, just something he found on the street, and he fixed up. I felt so horrible when he was going towards the well, and I threw it at the Green House and shattered a main window. Immediately, he forgot about the well and ran to see what had broken the window. I swiftly avoided noise as I leaped over the bush, and rolled to the well. "Give me your hand," I breathed, and when I grasped his hand, we once again disappeared. We reappeared in a dark alley which led to Arizona ave. the street that led off to most of the giant shop names in Gotham.

"Where are we now?" Richie asked as we walked out of the alley and onto the busy street.

"This, my friend, is Arizona avenue. It's where I used hang out with Lance." I told him as we started to walk down the street towards the subway.

"Who's Lance?" Richie asked scandalously.

I smiled, "He was this kid I met on the street. Oh, my goodness, he is the biggest cowboy I have ever met. The last time I saw him, he was about 10. He was this black kid, and he had the thickest Southern accent I had ever heard. Every day when I saw him, he had this fake mustache on and a cowboy hat. It was the funniest sight I had ever seen. You know, I haven't seen that kid in the longest time. I met him while I was at the church." I said, as we boarded the subway.

"Why are we on the subway? Why can't you just," he lowered his voice. "Transport us back to Dakota?"

"Because, I don't think of Dakota as home yet. To me, Gotham is still home. It's gonna take a while before I change my mind."

"Always were a stubborn one, weren't you, Andi?" A dark man hiding himself in the corner said, smiling.

"Well, if it isn't Lance Dance Vance the Cowboy. What can I do for you on this fine subway?" I said, moving towards Lance, Richie following.

"I want you to play some cards with me. Your friend can join us." His body language stated what he really meant.

"How many cards you want?" I asked, I peered over my glasses at Lance.

"Just one. A King."

I glanced at Richie who looked very uncomfortable, then turned back to Lance, "What suit?"

"You know, I've changed my mind. Instead of a King, I want a Joker." He got that look in his eyes that said he meant business. This is going to be a big hit.

"So, you want a Joker, Red or Black." He got this smile on his face.

"Red," he raised his eyebrows, seeing if I still remembered.

Red had always meant left. Black, right. Number cards meant number of people in that direction. Face cards were numbered by order. For example,it would go, Jack 12, Queen 13, King 14. Number of cards meant how many people to hit. Black Jokers meant eleven to the right. Red Jokers meant across the row and over one. There wasn't any eleven to the left, because we always tried to sit at the farthest seat to the left as possible. And today was no different. I looked over to the man across and one over from us. He was reading the newspaper, but I could never forget that face. "No. How about a Three of Diamonds? My deck just happens to be fresh out of Red Jokers."

"I would love that Red Joker, Andi." His voice was getting stern.

"Well, I lost my Red Joker, maybe the driver has an extra, let's go ask him." I also said sternly. I grabbed him by the sleeve, and drug him to the door to the next car. Unbeknownst to me, Lance or Richie, the man reading the newspaper had smiled at us. "Look," I whispered reaching into my pocket, and to Lance,making sure only he could hear me. "That man, is Bruce Wayne. He is off limits. No one hits him. No matter how desperate, or pathetic they are. Spread the word. I have to go, this is my stop." I said, hugging Lance good bye. "Maybe we'll see each other again." I walked back to Richie. "Common, it's our stop." He followed me as we got off. But, when we passed Mr. Wayne, I 'accidentally' tripped into him. "Sorry Mr. Wayne." Whilst I fell on him, I slipped a picture into his coat pocket. Then, after recovering from my trip, I walked off the subway and Richie and I walked to the bus stop to get the final road back to Dakota.

Bruce, took out the picture, and saw a little girl and boy playing on a playground. Both were in sweaters, long pants, and there were bright orange, yellow and red leaves on the ground. In the background, you could see an old man sitting on a bench, watching the children. The boy was much older than the girl, but it didn't seem to matter to them. Bruce smiled at the picture, and thought, 'Only her. I can't believe she's back. And after all this time. Alfred will be surprised to know that she's not dead.'


	7. Chapter 7

We were on the bus, maybe ten minutes from Dakota, and my cell phone rang. "Hello?" I said quietly, trying not to disturb anyone else that might be on the bus.

"So, where have you been for the past ten years." A very familiar voice said back to me.

"Gotham, actually," I answered. "But, I was in the side opposite from you." I paused for a second. "Did you look for me?"

"We never stopped. Police did after the first year, there was no evidence to go on. But, Gordon never let me stop. He was the only one, besides Alfie, and myself, who had hope."

"It was ten years Hayes, ten years. Where were you looking, the Grand Canyon?"

"We looked everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. We searched every single building from top to bottom."

"I had to keep moving, if they found me, they would have sent me away and you know it. I tried to spend my nights in public places, obvious places. I'll tell you more next time I see you. Because right now, I am on a bus with probably five other sleeping people. I am going back to the city of Dakota, with my two best friends Richard Hawkins and Virgil Foley. I assume you know them?"

"You assumed correctly. I'll be expecting your arrival. As will Alfie." He clicked off.

"My last name is Foley." Richie said, not quiet understanding.

"I know, he got the message. He always did." I put my cell phone away, and waited the last maybe three minutes to get off of the bus, and walk back to my place. Richie went to open his door, when I realized what his parents' reactions would be like if he came in through the door, instead of coming out of his bedroom. They would find out that I was with him, they would pretty much hate me forever, and would probably forbid me to ever see Richie ever again. Cannot let that happen. I quickly focused on his room, and just as he was about to open the door, I shot out a gust of wind from my hand that surrounded him, and he disappeared. I looked up at his window, and he gave me an understanding look before he turned away. I took my keys out of my pocket, unlocked my door, and went inside for maybe a minute. After that minute, I decided something: Today was Thanksgiving, and I was going to spend it with family. I picked up the phone and dialed Virgil's number.

"Sup?" a male's voice.

"Hey, Virg, I just wanted to tell you not to look for me this weekend, cause I'm going to be in Gotham. So, just warn Richie if he comes looking for me. Happy Thanksgiving, Virgil Hawkins."

"Happy Thanksgiving, Andrea Hojem." I smiled as he hung up. I grabbed my jacket and went upstairs and packed a couple days worth of clothing in my backpack. For the last time that day, I thought of home. My real home. I was smiling as I gracefully disappeared in wind once again.

Bruce Wayne was home now. Doing chin ups from the stair banister, just like Alfred had always instructed him not to. Alfred was at the store, buying the groceries he will need for their dinner tonight, and Bruce was the only one home.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"36, 37, 38, 39-" Bruce was cut off by the door bell. He let go the banister, and landed on the balls of his feet, like he was a cat. He took his shirt from the master chain and quickly put it on as he went to the door. When he opened the door, he found a teen aged girl with short dark hair, and a backpack. "Well, well, well," Bruce said. "Looks like Gypsy's back in town."

"It's good to see you again, Hayes." I said back to him. "May I come in?"

"You left?" he smiled, and I jumped up to give him the hug I had been waiting to give him for ten years. "Where's Alfie?"

"At the store. He should be back soon. But now," he started, taking my bag from my shoulder. "Let's get you settled in." We started for the stairs.

"It's great to be back in this old house." I said, putting my arm around Bruce's waist as we climbed the stairs.


	8. Chapter 8

I flopped down onto my old bed and I sighed in relief, "You have no idea how great this bed feels, Bruce." I got up and took my bag from him, who was leaning on the wall. "I'm gonna be so sad when I leave on Sunday."

"I wish you didn't have to. We could get used to you being here." Bruce said, coming over to sit on the bed.

"Alfie always told us 'school first'." I said back to him. "But I promise," I went to sit by him after I put my clothes away. "that I will come back every chance I get. Whether it's weekends, or breaks, or even after school. I will come back." I smiled. "I can't wait to tell Alfie-"

"Master Wayne, I'm home!" We heard Alfred shout from downstairs.

"He always timed everything perfect." I said to Bruce, who smirked.

"Hey, I have an idea," Bruce said. He whispered the plan into my ear, and I loved it. "Let's do it." Bruce went downstairs to find Alfred. When he found him in the kitchen, unloading the groceries, he said to him, "Hey Alfred, I've got good news."

"If it has anything to do Andrea, Master Wayne, I don't want to hear it." he said, not even looking up from what he was doing.

"But, Alfred, it's really good news about her." Bruce pushed.

Alfred sighed, "Fine," he turned around.

"I saw her today." He said, with enthusiasm, but Alfred's expression didn't change.

"I see her everyday, Master Wayne."

"But she gave me this, on the train." he pulled out the picture and gave it to Alfred.

"I must've made a dozen copies of this picture."

"But, you wrote her a note on the back, with your signature." Bruce flipped it over to show him the truth.

Alfred finally looked Bruce in the eyes, "I cannot believe it, sir, until I see it."

Bruce changed the subject, "Uh, how's Mrs. Odwalla, at the groceries store? I heard her husband was in the hospital. Something about a heart attack." 'Heart Attack' was my cue.

Before Alfred had time to answer, I strolled in (short sleeved shirt on), and said, "Hey Alfie, is there anything for breakfast? I'm starving." I opened the cupboard that used to hold the cereals. He was in shock for about five minutes. "Alfie? Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

He studdered, "You-you-you're alive!" His face broke out into a smile, and he rushed over to hug me. I embraced him just as tight as he did me.

"I've missed you," I said into his shoulder.

He pulled me away at arms length, "Why didn't you come back?"

"If I did, the police would have found out somehow. And they would have taken me away again. And no family is better than a family you don't know." Alfred started to sat something, but I interrupted, "But I'm safe now. No one can touch me. Come on, let's go into the living room." Alfred, Bruce and I went together into the living room and sat down one different pieces of furniture. Bruce a chair, Alfred, another chair, and me, a sofa. "There was an old lady, Virginia Skylar, and she has taken care of everything. On her death bed, last night, a social worker came into her hospital room and tried to take me away again. And Mrs. Skylar blew up at her. She said that her house was paid off. And that she was leaving it to me, and if the government said otherwise, her will would take care of it. She actually gave me a house to live it. Can you believe that?" I finished, laying my head on the top of the sofa. "I own a house."

"You're only fifteen! How are you supposed to pay the electric, water, and any other luxuries you might have every month?" Alfred outraged.

Without moving, I said, "I have to get a job. A_ really_ good job."

"We could help-" Bruce started, but I cut him off.

"I gotta do this on my own. Otherwise, how am I going to learn?"

He started again, "You know, I could get you a job at the company."

"I will take any job I can get." I told him, finally picking my head up.

"We are short handed in the," He looked over at Alfred. "Applied Sciences department." he smiled when he turned back to me.

"Like I said, I will take any job I can get. Thank you so much, Hayes, thank you." I vocalized my appreciation for what he had told me. "What do I have to do?"

"Now, because you aren't as experienced as the person before you, all I want you to do, is inventory. And, learn about the items. They are very important prototypes. Can I trust you with that?" he looked me in the eye with a face that I had only seen on Bruce Wayne once.

"You can trust me with anything." I replied, looking him right back in the eye, with the same look.

"Can you start Monday?" I nodded. "Good. Right after school, go to Wayne Enterprises. I assume you remember how to get there?" I nodded again. "There will be a lady at the front desk, go up to her and tell her that you are there to see Mr. Fox. She will tell you where he is, and when you meet him, tell him that Bruce Wayne sent you. He will take you where you need to go, and explain it. Can you remember that?"

"I remember everything." I said back to him, bad memories from the lab flashing in my mind.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey Bruce, can you hand me a wooden spoon, the stuffing's ready to be stirred," I said later that day as the three of us prepared our Thanksgiving dinner.

"Yeah, hold on a second," he said back, putting the lid on the mashed potatoes to keep them warm. He slid over to a vase filled with different spatulas, spoons and ladles. He plucked out a wooden spoon for me, and tossed it over. I caught it with ease.

"Please," Alfred started, cutting off a bunch of slices of turkey from the bird. "No throwing utensils in my kitchen."

"Sorry Alfie," we both replied as I stirred the stuffing. "Hey Alfie?" he 'hmmed' me. "Where is everyone?"

He looked up, "Master Wayne gave them the night off. It was right nice of him." Alfie looked over at Bruce who had a smile on his face.

"Why aren't you home?"

He got an old man's look in his eyes, "This is my home." he picked up the plate with the slices of turkey on it and took it out to the dining room. Bruce and I closely followed with bowls of stuffing, mashed potatoes, a dish of cranberry sauce (straight from the can), a gravy boat full of gravy (who could have predicted that?), a pitcher of water, and three cups. Of course, we made more than one trip to take it all to the table. Everything was at one end of the table, Alfred at the head, and Bruce and I in the seats next to him, forming a triangle. "Let us pray," all three of us stood up and joined hands. "Dear Lord," Alfie began, bowing his head and closing his eyes. "I would like to give thanks for bringing us all together. For bringing Andrea back to us now, for giving us this food and this house, and everything that you've ever done for us. Amen." Bruce and I murmured after him and we sat down. We were silent while we gathered a helping of everything. "So, Andrea," Alfred started putting down the dish of cranberry sauce. "Why don't you tell us what you've done in the last ten years."

I nodded as I cut my slice of turkey, "Okay, sure. How do you want it? Sugar coated, or Real Deal blood and gore?"

"I think we'll take blood and gore, you know how much of a sucker Alfie is for horror movies." Bruce replied for Alfred with a smile.

"Okay," I took a bite of my turkey, and continued, "When I had reappeared after the accident, I wasn't at a church like I had told Richie and Virgil, it was on a cliff. Now, I hadn't realized that what I had done, but I knew that it was bad, and that you were angry with me. I thought that if I had left, everything would be fine. And I was going to jump because I thought you hated me. I was at the edge, just thinking, and this kid runs up behind me, grabs me, and pretty much drags me away. He made me follow him to his 'home' which was an abandoned shed at the edge of Gotham. He literally ties me down to a chair and interrogates me for being on his property. Now, this kid is was the biggest wannabe I've ever met. He was this ten year old black kid, who always acted like a cowboy, and had this fake mustache on." I stopped to giggle, but then went right back into it. "So, I befriended him, and stayed with him for a while. He taught me a lot about how to survive on the streets. See, he has been on the streets practically since the day he was born, so he had his techniques, and he made me his protege. We worked on the subway, from Legend 34 to Crown 12 before noon, and then Crown 12 back to Legend 34 after dark. During the gap, we'd go to Gotham University. Now, apparently, a teacher there knew Lance, the kid that took me in, and he let us sit in on his lessons. During breaks, this teacher would give us lessons on things that we should have been learning in school. It went on like that for about three years, but then, I decided to move on. So, with a third graders education under my belt, I went in towards the better part of Gotham. I found this lady, Ms. State, and gave me clothes, food, and shelter...for a while. After about two weeks of me living in her house, she started to come home drunk, and she would beat me. Every night, when she would come home, I would lock myself in a cupboard, and stay out of her way. She found me most of the time, but others, she was just too drunk to care. A two weeks after she started to beat me, some police came around the house. Um, the night the police came, I heard her coming home like she did every night. She was coming towards the cupboard, I heard her heels clicking as she got closer. Then, she just suddenly dropped. Her boyfriend, who would join her in beating me, came running when he heard her fall. He never knew that I hid in the cupboard, because she would tell him to meet her in the bedroom, and she would bring me in. So, I was keen to be very quiet while he was calling 911. A couple hours later, a man with a mustache opened the cupboard, picked me up out of there, carried me to his car, and took me to the police station. He took me into a room with a two-way mirror. And he asked me a bunch of questions."

"What'd he ask you?" Alfred said, getting more food onto his plate.

"Well, he asked me for my clothes, he said it was for their investigation on Ms. State's death. And I told him that I wasn't going to undress for anybody. He told me, that they needed my clothes, so I said okay, they could have them. He said that he was going to give me an extra set of clothes to change into. He left, and came back with the smallest pair of scrubs he could find, because the jumpsuits they normally have people wear were much too big for me. After I had changed and we sat down across from each other at the table in the middle of the room, he started to ask me real questions. First, he asked what my name was, I replied, Andrea Lotus Hojem. Then he asked how old I was. I told him almost nine. He asked me if I had a place to live. I answered, I used to, but I ran away. He was quiet for a couple minutes, but then he asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink. I told him that I hadn't eaten in a week. And then, he asked if I wanted anything else. I asked him if he had a paper and a pen, and he took a pad of paper and a pen out of his shirt pocket and placed it in front of me. He said he'd be right back, and then he left. When he came back, he put a bag of chips and a bottle of water from a vending machine next to the pad of paper where I was doodling. He looked at it strangely and asked what the B stood for. And I answered, Bruce. And he asked who Bruce was, so I answered him, a very dear friend of mine. He asked if Bruce had a last name, and I said yes. He asked if I could tell him Bruce's last name, and I said Wayne. He got a glassy look in his eyes and asked to see my arms. I told him that I wanted to know more about him before I showed him any part of my body. He leaned back in his chair, and I started to ask him questions. First, I asked him, what's your name. He replied with Gordon. I then asked if he had a family. He said, yes. After, I asked where he lived. He answered, in an apartment downtown. I asked him next, if he would turn around. He obliged, and I rolled up my sleeves. I told him he could turn around, and when he saw my arms, he knew that I was the girl that you were looking for. I asked him to please not turn me in. And he said, that it was his job to return missing children to their rightful place. And I told him that I wasn't ready to go home yet, that I was doing just fine on my own. He let the subject go, and finished questioning me about Ms. State's case. Right before his shift was over, he got permission from the Sheriff to let me stay over at his place that until the case was solved, because jail is no place for an eight year old." I paused because Bruce was about to say something.

"Why didn't Gordon tell us?" He had a confused/angry look upon him.

"Because, I asked him not to. I wanted you guys to forget about me, and everything I did."


	10. Chapter 10

I hate silence. It gives me the creeps. And right now, they were being quiet. They were mad again. Shit, I thought as I played with the last bits of my stuffing.

"Um," I tried to break the silence, but they only glanced up at me. "I was thinking about going out for the musical at school."

"That's great," Bruce mumbled, still not looking at me.

"What musical?" Alfred asked, finally looking up at me.

"Jesus Christ Superstar," I said, looking back down at my plate.

"And, who were you thinking of going out for?" An interested Alfred continued.

"Judas," I murmured, just barely hearing it myself.

"Well isn't that the perfect role for you," Bruce said loudly.

"Bruce, please!" Alfred defended me as he saw my face.

"It's okay Alfie," I stood up, picked up my plate and turned towards the kitchen. "I think I'll take a walk." I put my plate in the sink, and went to the door, "I'll be back in an hour or so." I shouted to them as I grabbed my coat from the hanger and walked out the door. I thought a lot as I walked through the streets of Gotham. Mostly about how much I hurt them, and other times how much more I could have hurt them by never coming back.

"Hey," a whisper came from the alley I was currently passing.

Oh great, I thought turning towards the guy that whispered, just what Gotham needs, another drug dealer. "What?" I sighed, rolling my eyes and putting my hands in the coat's pockets.

"You wanna be happy?" he asked, coming out of the shadow he was in just a little.

"Not really," I answered him, the sarcasm just erupting. "I like being depressed, it gives me a chance to think bad thoughts about people, and not feel guilty. So I'm sorry if I made you disappointed, but that's life: sometimes it's in the cards," I brought my hand out of my coat pocket, and flicked a card from the pocket at him. "And sometimes it's not."

He bent down to pick up the card, and turned it over, "A red joker?" his eyes got wider when he looked up and saw that I wasn't there. He slowly crept to the entrance of the alley and looked both ways down the sidewalk, looking for me. When he didn't find me, he walked backward back into the darkness and said under his breath, "Where did you go?"

I popped in next to him and whispered in his ear, "Here,"

He was so surprised that he turned towards me and, with the momentum of him turning, punched me in the face.

I got this look on my face, it kinda said, 'Oh, bitch gonna die', which is almost exactly what I said to the guy, "Bitch did not just punch me in the face. You are so going to die." So, I punched him back, and all of a sudden this mob of eight big people emerged out of the darkness, and grabbed me. It took three of them to keep me still, and two of them to beat me senseless. The other three were there to cheer the other two on. After maybe three punches to the face, I couldn't hear it, but I felt my nose break and go farther into my skull. I screamed in pain when they laughed at my fragile bones. They hit my stomach so much, that blood started to ooze out of my mouth and down my chin, and the only thing I could do about it was whine.

"Hey guys," the dealer person taunted. "She's a Joker, check out the calling card: it's a red joker, and you know what that means, she's new." a smirk came across his face.

"Then why don't we show her how we handle things around here, on _our_ turf." one of the guys who was beating on me said. He smiled when he picked up my leg, and let the other break it with a metal rod that was laying in the alley. My head fell, silent tears of the most amount of pain I had ever felt came streaming down my face.

"What do you think, boys? She had enough?" the head dealer person asked.

"Almost," one of thugs that was holding my arms back. "I think she needs to meet the wall a couple times." They laughed in agreement.

"Let her go," an angry voice came out of no where. All of a sudden, the leader dude disappeared into the darkness. "Leave her alone, or your leader dies." the voice pulled out a glowing red pointed object, and revealed himself with the object pointed at the leader's head. They dropped me like an old rag, and left, keeping eye contact with the man that had their role model practically at gun point. "Now get outta here before I poke this in your eyes! Get!" he let the leader go, and they stalked out of the alley. He dropped the pointed object and came over to me. "You okay, kid?"

I groaned when I tried to open my eyes, I was too tired to succeed, "I'll be alright...eventually. And what should I call you, my savior?" My words slurring as I went.

"Name's James Mel. I've seen them take out a couple people, and when they said that you were a girl, I lost it. I grabbed the fire poker from my group's barrel, and I went at them. Is there anyone I can call for you?" The mysterious man asked.

"Yeah," I mumbled, glad that the left part of my face, which hurt the most, was on the cold and wet cement of the alley way. "If you turn me over, you can get my...phone...right pocket."

"Common girly, don't fade on me now. Who do I call?" He rolled me over, quickly so that I might have been spared some pain.

"3...hit send...you should get..." but the everything was too unbearable for me, and the next thing I know, I can't hear James anymore, I can't hear anything. Everything is just, gone.


	11. Chapter 11

"_Common! We have to hurry!" a man said carrying me into a room. "If Thomas finds out that it's today, he's going to take over the whole operation."_

"_Then we shouldn't be doing this Charlie. It's not right." a younger man said to the older one who took me into a room. _

"_Look Shawn, this is a necessary sacrifice if we want to merge companies with Alva Industries." Charlie said, placing me on a stool in the middle of the room. _

"_Mr. Wayne trusts us! Why are we-" Charlie cut him off._

"_Thomas knows exactly what we're doing. We aren't breaking his trust." Shawn followed Charlie to the _"safe zone"_ which was ten feet away and behind safety glass. "Look, Shawn, do you want to be a good scientist?" he nodded. "Then you have to learn to make sacrifices, no matter what."_

"_Just out of curiosity," Shawn started, as he watched Charlie set up the experiment, and as he inched closer to the door. "How much gas were you going to use on her?"_

"_Just enough to show results. Not enough to kill her." he wasn't paying attention, he was focused on the large control panel. "Now, what we're going to do..." he babbled on, not noticing that Shawn had left him, and ran to the room where I was crying on the stool, and picked me up._

"_Shh, it's okay. You'll be safe in a minute." He cooed, and I calmed down. He held me close to his chest, and walked out of the room. He made sure to be as quiet as possible when he was passing the control room. Shawn made it to the elevator, and as he waited for the elevator to come down, he felt a stinging pain in his stomach. He looked down, and saw a metal tip covered in red in front of him. And he felt it as it went back inside him, and came out. He turned and saw the disappointed face of Charlie. "What are you doing, Charlie?" he gasped out, the pain becoming more extravagant._

"_I'm doing, what is right. What about you, Shawn?" Charlie asked, a stern look on his face._

"_I'm making," he took a deep breath. "A sacrifice."_

"_Whose? Yours," Charlie then looked from Shawn's young, now distorted face, to my, chubby and peaceful one. "Or hers?"_

"_You don't know who she is, do you?"_

"_Does it matter?"_

"_She's the daughter of T-" Shawn heard the elevator open, and he said, propelling himself back into the elevator. "By the way, the sacrifice I'm making is mine." Once in the elevator, he quickly pushed 'the close door' button, before Charlie knew what was going on. Shawn then pushed the 8th floor button, and while he slid down one of the the wall facing the door, he hoped that someone up there could help him. He went up only two floors from the 3rd (where he originally was) when the doors opened to reveal Thomas Wayne._

_When he saw him, he rushed into the elevator to help his fallen colleague. "Shawn? What happened?"_

"_Charlie...tried testing on her. I wouldn't let him." He still clutched me close to his chest._

"_It's going to be okay, Shawn, you can give her to me, I'll make sure she's safe." Shawn reluctantly let go of me and handed me over to Thomas. When he got hold of me, he said, "Jennifer, could you come her for a minute?" the lady at the desk answered to her name and came over. "Could you take Andrea here to Mr. Fox, and tell him that no one takes her away from him unless I say so. Do you understand?" Jennifer nodded, and gently took me from Mr. Wayne's arms. She made sure that I wasn't facing them as we left the room. She boarded another elevator, and took me up to Mr. Fox's office. _

"_Lucius," Jennifer said, catching the attention of the older man, who was behind his desk._

"_Yes, Jennifer?" he said, putting the papers he was examining in a pile._

"_Mr. Wayne told me to give you Andrea to babysit until he comes back. And to not let anyone take her until he returns." She recited. She handed me over to him, and he took me happily._

"_Thank you Jennifer," he said with a smile and a glint in his dark eyes._

"_Your welcome, Lucius," she blushed and smiled back. Then she turned and left by the same elevator._

_He smiled down at me, shook his head slightly, and said to me, "Kids, huh? What are you gonna do?" He spun around in his chair so that he was facing a wall. "Although she is a wonderful dancer. Especially when she's had one or two drinks at a Christmas party." Lucius chuckled softly at the fond memory. I yawned, and snuggled up in the warm crook of his arm, closed my eyes, and fell asleep. "You will never know how much you look like him." he softly whispered. Mr. Fox took one of his rough hands, and, as gently as he could, ran it down the side of my face. He watched me sleep for a while, until a horrible smelling cloth was put over his mouth. He tried to fight it without waking me, but he failed. After Mr. Fox had passed out, the person who had the cloth, took me out of his arms, and brought me back down to the 3rd story._

"_Set everything up, we don't have long." Charlie said to his fellow colleagues, passing the control room and going into the greenhouse. He once again put me onto the stool, and went back into the control room. "Brace yourselves, lads. We don't know what will happen to her or what she might turn into. Cross your fingers." he pushed the button, and a whole bunch of purple gas came streaming out of two pipes at the top of the greenhouse. The gas made the smoke alarms go off, and the sprinklers had turned on. I had gotten very upset at the fact that something strange that I had never known before had infiltrated my body's defenses. Because the stool was only a small step stool, I was able to kind of crawl off it, but it was more a roll than a crawl. So when I was off of the stool, I had tried my best to get to the nearest plant for cover from the sprinklers. And I stayed under the protection of the Birds of Paradise plants until everything was shut off; it seemed like forever. And before I knew it, I was being picked up again, and taken into the elevator. I was brought back up to Mr. Fox's floor, and I was put back into his arms, crying harder than I had ever before._

_Sometime later, Mr. Fox had woken up and heard my crying, which was more of dry sobbing by now. When he looked down at me, he noticed something about me that not many people would have noticed right away. "My dear, dear Andrea," he said softly and sadly at the fact that he couldn't fulfill his promise to Thomas. "Why have your eyes turned green?"_

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Slowly, I opened my eyes, which were blending from a radiant green back to the dark chocolate they originated.


	12. Chapter 12

I looked around the room I was in. I know this place. I've been here before.

"Hey, beautiful. Glad to see you're up."

I smiled when I heard the all too familiar voice. "Gordon," I whispered for my throat and mouth were the Sahara desert. "Good to see you."

"And you too, more or less." I sort of chuckled.

"How long was I out?" I asked before he sat me up, and gave me some water.

"Three days," He took the glass away from my mouth.

"Please tell me it's not Sunday." I groaned.

"Sorry to disappoint, short stuff, it's Sunday morning." He said, sitting down on the couch at my feet.

"Shouldn't you be at church?" I asked him, remembering how he had always made me go to church when I lived with him.

"Eh, I skipped it for you." I smiled a tired smile at him. "So, how are you feeling today?"

"I feel like I just got completely destroyed by an army of rabbits." He kind of got this quizzical confused kind of look on his face as if to ask, 'What the fuck?'. "Okay, scratch that. How about I feel like I just got completely destroyed?"

"That's better."

"So," I said, repositioning myself on the couch so that I was in a more comfortable sitting position. "What did I miss?"

"Well, I'm helping out your boy James, you know, giving him some options of how to get him off the streets, and into homes and everything. And-"

"You didn't take me to the hospital, did you?" I interrupted him.

He grinned, "Na, I knew you'd take care of yourself." Then, he started to point at my face to make his point. "Did you know you had a broken nose?"

"Yeah, I uh, I felt it. When the peeps were, messing up my face." I said, pointing at my face in circular motion.

Now, he got this real quizzical look on his face, "How do you do it, Andie? How do you heal yourself?"

"Honestly, Gordon," my throat was getting dry again, and my voice hoarse. "I don't know. But what I do know, is what I heard Mr. Fox told Alfred to tell Thomas before he died, and after he died, he told me. Because, back when I was still living with Brucie-boy, Lucius ran some blood test after the experiment. And, he find out that I now have two sets of cells, both plant and animal. And, because I have both complete sets, and they reproduce at the same rate, it's like meiosis twice as fast. So, it's like double the cells than a normal human being all the time, causing it to heal faster. I don't know if there's more to it, but, that's all I was ever told." I swallowed the mucus and spit that had gathered in my mouth. "What time is it, anyway?"

Gordon looked at his watch, "10:36."

"Alright, I can catch the 10:50 at Nunquam st., and make it home by maybe 5:30." I flipped the blanket off of me, and got up.

"Wait," Gordon said while I was stretching. "Why do your eyes turn green?"

"What?"

"When I arrived to where you and James were, your eyes were open ever so slightly, and they were green, not brown. I just want to know why."

"Look, Gordon, baby, I don't know. Maybe it's a defect for when I'm using the extra energy I get when my plant cells are doing their whole photosynthesis thing, and it turns my eyes green like the chlorophyll, I don't know. But I'll try and find out for you, I promise. Now, I gotta go, or I'm gonna miss the bus." I went over and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, for being there. It really helps." When we got out of the hug, I asked him, "So, how's Cheryl? She good?"

"Yeah, yeah she's great. We have a little boy now."

"Oh, that's wonderful. What's his name?"

"Alex Ryan."

"That's a great name," I said, giving him one last hug before collecting my coat from the coat hanger in the corner by the door. I rotated it, seeing how much damage it had taken. "I'm going to have to wash this," I chuckled at the random bits of blood that were spattered all over it. "I uh, I gotta get goin'. All right? I'll uh, I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah, definitely. Just, be safe kid." he patted me on the shoulder.

"I can't make any promises, but I'll try." I backed out the door, waved, turned around and left down the sidewalk until I came upon another alley. Then, I disappeared back at the Wayne place. But, this time I wasn't in front of the door, or in the yard, this time, I was in my room. And because I hadn't unpacked, I was ready to go in like, five minutes. But, I did go into Bruce's room, to see if he was there so that I could apologize. He wasn't, so I decided to screw it, and just go to the bus stop. I was a little sad that I didn't see them before I left, and because I wasn't concentrating, I ended up two blocks away from the bus stop. By the time I had walked from the Smoke Ace corner to the Nunquam Dance Sunny-side intersection, I was so tired. I could barely stand. And so, I waited for the bus maybe five minutes before it came. After I had paid, slowly walked up the steps, and sat in one of the middle rows, I was exhausted. Maybe I had used up more energy healing than I originally thought. We made many stops, and it took many hours, but, after an hour nap, I was dropped off at the community center in Dakota at 5:34 pm. What I didn't know, was that Virgil's father leaves to go home from the community center everyday at 5:35 pm. At almost the exact time I got off the bus, Mr. Hawkins was walking out of the building. I don't know how, but he recognized me almost at once.

"Hey, Andrea!" he shouted out. I turned around, surprised to see him.

"Hey, Mr. Hawkins. How's is going?" I asked.

"Every thing's going fine. What about you?" he was eying my coat.

"Oh, well I'm good. I was in Gotham this weekend, visiting my uncle." I said, walking with him towards his car.

"Were you now?"

"Yes, I was actually on my way to see him, and this guy jumped me in the streets and started pounding on me. But, I retaliated, and broke his nose, causing it to spurt out blood all over my coat." I reassured him.

"Would you like me to drive you home? It's on my way." He offered, and boy was I glad.

"That would be lovely, Mr. Hawkins. I would very much appreciate it." As he got into the driver's seat, I took the passengers side.

"So, Andrea," he started, as we made our way out. "What does your uncle do for a living?"

"Well, he kind of doesn't," I lied, smooth sailing as I went. "See, he's in rehab for alcohol. And I visit him every now and then."

"So, who do you stay with?"

"I've made a deal with a police officer I know. He takes me to my uncle and I can stay with him for the weekend if I help out around the house."

"Which officer?"

"His name is James Gordon, sir."

"Ah, where abouts do you live?" he asked at a stoplight.

"Next to Richie."

"Really? Well isn't that interesting? We'll be there momentarily." We were silent the rest of the way.

"Thank you, again." I told him as I got out of the car and got my back pack from the back seat.

"Andrea, if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm always here. Okay?"

"Of course, Mr. Hawkins. Thank you for the ride."

"No problem, bye."

"Bye." he drove off, and I went inside. I amazingly made it up the stairs, threw my bag on the chair in my room, and flopped down on my bed before falling asleep almost instantly out of exhaustion.


	13. Chapter 13

I had never slept so soundly in my entire life. The only thing that actually woke me up was someone shaking me. And even then I very reluctant. But I did wake up to see both Virgil and Richie standing over me. "Am I really _that_ interesting?" I said, making them chuckle.

"My pops sent me here to check up on you. He said that you looked tired and sick when he saw you." Virgil said, sitting down by my feet. "And when you didn't show up for school, I figured you had to have been sick."

I almost immediately woke up, "What time is it?"

"It's right after school. By the way, here are the notes you missed, and your homework." Richie handed me a folder full of papers.

"You guys are the coolest people I've ever met." I said, taking the folder and getting out of bed. "Sorry I can't hang out with y'all, but I've got to get to work."

"Work? Since when do you have a job?" Richie asked as I went past him to my closet. I picked out a pair of dress pants, and my nicest long sleeved shirt.

"Since four days ago. Now get out, I gotta change." I shooed them out. I got changed as fast as I could, and made myself look presentable. Then, I put the folder with all of my homework in my 'DONATE LIFE' sling bag. I finished up with putting on my classically green Chuck Taylors, and went downstairs. When I reached the living room, neither Richie nor Virgil were there, so, I figured they had left. I locked the house from the inside, and transported to the women's bathroom on the first floor of Wayne Tower. I checked my hair in the mirror, and came out like I had been in there the whole time. With confidence, I walked up to the lady at the desk.

"Can I help you?" She asked, with a fake smile.

"Yes, I'm here to see Mr. Fox." I replied, and she looked down at some papers.

"Ah, yes. You must be the one that Mr. Wayne told me about." I nodded. "Mr. Fox is on the tenth floor, main board room."

I thanked her, and went into the elevator. After I pressed the '10' button, I was raised to the third floor, and two men entered. Then the eighth floor, two women and one man. And finally the tenth floor, and I got off. The main board room wasn't that hard to find, mostly because it had two gigantic doors made of glass. But, other than that, Mr. Fox was standing in front of the long table, looking at me. I swiftly walked up, opened the door, and stood in front of him. He was about a foot taller than me, for I was short, so I had to look up to meet his eyes.

"What can I do for you?" His voice was raspy but soft.

"Mr. Wayne sent me. Something about a job."

He smiled slightly, "Follow me." and I did. When we entered the elevator, he pushed the button that led to the basement. "You must be Andrea."

"That's what they tell me, sir." We didn't look at each other.

"Do you remember me?"

"Honestly sir, I try not to remember anybody." I lied.

"That's probably the best idea." He finally looked at me when we stepped out. "Welcome to Applied Sciences." I walked out to what looked like an old subway, which was now filled with rows and rows of huge filing cabinets, well, not really filing, but like the cabinets you would see at the morgue, just larger. "I hear that you're under age, Miss Hojem." he said leading me down the long hall. "How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen, sir." I followed him.

"Fifteen? That young?" he didn't sound surprised.

"Yes, sir. That young." Of course, we didn't look at each other. It wasn't anything personal, it's just business.

"Now, what business does Mr. Wayne have trusting someone of your adolescence?" We stopped at a desk at the end of the miraculously long hall.

"Sir," I said, my voice getting stiffer. "I have known Mr. Wayne my entire life. He knows that if he tells me something, I will take it to the grave." My tight-eyed gaze matched his.

"Good." For the first time, since I saw him last, which was like a million years ago, he smiled. Though it was more of a smirk. "Everything you need is in the desk. I'll check in from time to time." He turned and started to walk back down the long hall, leaving me alone. Again.

"Sir," I said, just loud enough for him to hear, and he turned around. "I remember you. You were there when it happened."

"Yes, yes I was. And I'm sorry I let it happen." He turned away again, and this time didn't stop.

"Sir. Sir! Mr. Fox!" But he didn't take a second look. And I was alone. I shook my head, and went over behind the desk. Only one drawer wasn't locked, which was the top middle one. When I opened it, there was a white packet laying in the middle of it. I picked it up, and all that read on the first page, was "Go to the first cabinet in row 32." Now, being the curious person I was, I went to row 32, which was like twenty rows from where I was. So, I'm standing in front of the cabinet, and I turn to the next page of the packet, and it read, "Open the second drawer." So, of course, I open the drawer, and I think, this is definitely like the morgue. But then, I look down at the contents of the drawer: laptop, laptop cord, ipod. I was confused. I turned the page, "Take everyone of these items, and sit down at the desk." "Right," I said to myself as I gathered everything, and took it back to the desk. I sat down, and turned the next page, "Do your homework, and Enjoy." and a little under that was the signature of Mr. Lucius Fox. There were no more pages, so I figured, why not? And I enjoyed my new laptop.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

An hour later, Mr. Fox quietly made his way through the rows so that he could get a good look at what exactly I was doing. And I was doing my homework, like I was told to. Satisfied, he left. Mr. Fox went into the elevator, pressed the tenth floor button, and pulled out his cell phone.

"She took the bait."

"Good." Bruce said on the other line. "What are you having her do?"

"Her homework."

"Good. Is she to be trusted?"

Mr. Fox sighed, "She might be the only other that can be."


	14. Chapter 14

A few hours later, I head footsteps. They were coming at me at a brisk pace, yet still graceful enough to be considered a waltz. I had put my new laptop away inside the desk, and was now working on trigonometry, which was quite a delight (Ah, sarcasm, what a great thing). After the footsteps stopped in front of my desk, I looked up with a serious face. It was Bruce; of course.

"Can I help you, Mr. Wayne?" I asked, putting down my pencil and folding my hands on the top of the desk.

"So, we're all business?" he asked, him looking down at me, and I just stared right back.

"That's what you have me here for."

"Right," he sighed and turned away, "Follow me, if you please."

I didn't hesitate in following him. I trust him. Even as we entered the elevator, he still didn't look at me. And so, I didn't look at him. If he was going to be like that, then so was I. I could hold out just as long as he could. As we returned back to the lobby, we had yet to talk or look at each other since the we were in the basement. And I followed him out, and to his car. The driver opened the door for me, but I just stood there, and finally looked at him.

And of course, I won out, "It's just to dinner."

I got a smile on my face, but a sad one, "I'd love to Hayes,"

"Then come on-"

"But," I cut him off. "I have Trigonometry that needs to be done." I nodded to him, and turned around.

"Common Andi, it's just dinner." he pleaded, stopping me in my tracks.

"No, it's never 'just dinner'. Because 'just dinner' will turn into 'just breakfast', then into 'just picking you up from school early so we can hang out'. It will never be 'just dinner'." I turned away again, and started to walk, but again, he stopped me.

"Andi, why are you always doing this?" his desperate voice called out to me, as I was almost at the door.

"Doing what, Bruce? Leaving? Like I really choose to." I was hurt that he thought that I wanted to leave him.

"You did that day with the social worker." I had to take a deep breath from killing him.

"You have no idea what I was going through."

"Or really? No idea? Non at all?" he taunted, coming up to me now.

"No, non." my voice was so angry, but all I wanted to do was cry. "You thought you killed your parents, Bruce. But you didn't. He did." I brought it down to a whisper, so that only he could hear. "I killed her. I didn't mean to, but I did it. And I got scared. I had no idea what was going on. Now if you excuse me, I have trigonometry to do." I turned away again, and this time, I didn't stop to apologize. He should've stopped me. As I stalked through the lobby and once again to the elevator, I thought I heard him come after me, but it was just my imagination. Maybe ten minutes after I had gotten back down to my desk, and finished trigonometry, Mr. Fox came back with a tray.

"I thought you might like some dinner. Since it's well past eight, I thought you might be hungry." he laid down the tray which had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of baked lays, and a bottle of strawberry flavored water.

"Did _he _send you?" I asked, some tightness in my voice.

"No. It's a gift from me to you." He said with a smirk as he walked away.

"Thank you, Mr. Fox." I called to him before he turned the corner.

"Your shift ends at eleven. I'll be back at 11:05, so you better not be." He smiled again, then left me.

--

Mr. Fox got off the elevator at the lobby, and got into a car that took him to a Cafe a few blocks away from Wayne Tower. He casually walked in and sat down at a table across from Bruce in the back of said Cafe.

"Mr. Fox, why is it that every time I try and do something nice for Andi, she always turns it down, and always has a snappy comeback?" Bruce asked as a waitress brought two cups of coffee to them.

"Mr. Wayne, think about her situation: she's had to provide for herself since she was six years old. That's nine years of looking out for herself, and no one else. She probably doesn't appreciate charity because she doesn't want people to think that she needs it." he just wanted to calm Bruce down.

"She knows that I would do anything for her, any time. But if she would just let me in-" my goodness was Hayes desperate.

"Mr. Wayne, you must understand that she is as stubborn as she ever was. You have to let her come to you."

"I-I-I" he started to stutter. "I just miss Gypsy."

"And I'm sure she misses Hayes. But do you really think she's ready for all that?" Mr. Fox asked taking the check from the waitress that came over.

"She can handle it. She's one of us." Both him and Fox stood up and walked out the door, yet they stood outside to end the conversation. "And I know how I'm going to tell her."


	15. Chapter 15

I sat, and looked at my watch. 11:04. I just can't wait till 11:05, just to see what Mr. Fox does. He'll probably yell at me, and send me home in a huff. That would make my day. I had been so bored the last three, eight hours. I didn't have any other homework but trigonometry, and that gets boring after a while. So, I went exploring. And I found hand grenades, and a tank, and this really cool fabric that was like Spandex, but bullet proof. It wasn't tough like armor, and it was so cool; it came in like eight colors, and I hope Mr. Fox doesn't mind, but I borrowed some of it, and I plan to make a really cool outfit, and it's just gonna be awesome.

"What did I tell you?" A slightly agitated Mr. Fox announced when he saw that I was still sitting at my desk.

And, of course, being the smart alack I was, I replied with, "Everything I need is in the desk?"

"Go home, Andrea. It's way past your bed time." He kind of joked.

"I don't got no bed time sir, I'm on my own. Like I always was." When I'm tired, I sound drunk, so, don't mind if stuff doesn't too right.

"Right, of course." He came over and picked up my backpack, "Get out before I make you get out."

"What you gonna do, Mr. Fox?" I taunted him, taking my backpack from him. "Tell big bad Brucie on me? Like I honestly care what he thinks anymore."

"Ms. Hojem, if you hate Mr. Wayne so much, why do you want to stay inside his company's building?"

"No. You're wrong there, Mr. Fox." I cut him off. "It isn't Bruce's company, it's his father's. Always will be. And don't worry, I'm out, just wanted to see what you would do." I shrugged my shoulders, and left for the elevator, a minute or so later, Mr. Fox headed towards the elevator. "Going up?"

"I'll take the next one." So, I left him.

And when the doors opened in the lobby, I wasn't in the compacted room, I was home, taking deep breaths to calm myself. What no one knew, was that I was claustrophobic. It was the whole cupboard thing with Ms. State that really threw me off the edge. Although I had learned to keep myself cool when in a small area with a bunch of people around, I was still freaking out on the inside. I didn't sleep so well that night, mostly because I had a thousand ideas about the fabric buzzing in my head, but some of it was about how mean and terrible I was to Bruce. I wanted to be nice to Bruce, I really did. I wanted to go to dinner with him. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to do all those things, but, I guess I was still angry at him from before. I just want everything to go back to the way it used to be: Hayes and Gypsy, partners in crime. At least, stealing cookies and goodies from the kitchen as far as crime goes.

"Hey, Andi," Virgil said, shaking me from a dream like state. "You okay?"

"Yeah, woah, sorry about that." I got a little uncomfortable when I saw them both staring at me. "Did I miss something important?"

"Yeah," Richie started. "Like the whole school day."

"What? You gotta be kidding me." I said, unbelievingly.

"No, you pretty much missed the entirety of school." Virgil replied to me. I looked around and found myself near the fountain in the park.

I was a tiny bit confused, "When did we get here?"

Richie looked at his watch, "About 5 minutes ago."

"Oh," I said, sitting down on the grass, because apparently we were all just standing next to the fountain.

"So what has got your mind all up in a bunch today?" He asked, sitting down on the grass next to me, Virgil followed suite.

"I got in this fight with Hayes at Thanksgiving. Then I saw him again yesterday, and we had another fight." Richie, of course understood all of this.

Virgil however, "Hayes?"

"My bother."

"Ah," then it hit him. "Wait a minute, since when do you have a brother?"

"Well," I started. "He's not really my brother. We just consider each other siblings."

"So, Andi," Virgil started. He looked over at Richie, and he nodded. "We wanted to ask you something."

I got a suspicious look on my face. "Shoot."

"We wanted to know if you would join our team."

I raised my eyebrow, "Team?"

"Yeah," Richie replied. "Static," he brought his voice down, and pointed at Virgil. "Gear," at himself, "And..." at me. "Whatever you want your name to be."

"I am so sorry guys, I wish I could, but, I have to work." I said with hesitation. I really did want to be part of their team.

"You sure?" Virgil said, putting a small pout on his face.

"Yeah," I felt like I let them both down, including myself. "I gotta go to work. Sorry guys." I didn't get up, I just disappeared. The next two weeks were glorious. For starters, I didn't see Bruce at all; and what Mr. Fox told me to do in his packets, were not exactly Applied Sciences material. He had me doing random stuff like, locking certain cabinets, or moving stuff from one drawer to another. And that gave me a whole bunch of time to get a sewing machine, and create my costume. I don't even know why I made a costume, I'm not going to use it. The last day of those two weeks, I got off early, and decided to walk home. And since it was a Friday, it didn't matter what time I got home. The cool air, was amazing. It just made me feel so free. And the small bit of snow on the ground, made Gotham look nice for a change. I was just passing Nunquam St. when I heard many screams emit from a crowd running towards a house. I followed them, only to find that the house was on fire. "Hey!" I called to one of the people starring in horror at the fire. "What happened?"

"I don't know! The house just burst into flames." The woman cried.

"Are people still in there?" I asked, genuinely concerned. "Why isn't the fire department here yet?"

The woman looked at me with wide eyes, "I don't know. But her nephew, Scott" she pointed to a woman who was crying uncontrollably on the other side of the crowd. "is still in there."

"And no one's going to go get him? What kind of people are you?" I said, before I pushed myself through the crowd from the back, and into the house. Beyond the dull light from the flames, it was dark; and the smoke made it even harder to see. "Scott!" I called out, pushing through some debris that was falling into what used to be a living room from the second floor. "Scott! Where are you?!" I shouted, now climbing the stairs that weren't too far from where I was. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, hopping over a few missing steps. "Common Scott! Say something!!"

"Helmph!" I heard a small, muffled voice shout out from the bedroom to the left of me. I busted into the room, my shoulder leading the way.

"Hey! Scott! Where are you!"

"Here!" I heard him say from under the bed. I got on my hands and knees, looked under the bed, and saw a small boy cowering with soot on his face.

"Hey, Scott?" he nodded. "I'm Andi Hojem, and imma get you outta here, okay?" I extended my hand to him, and the took it with his small hand. I pulled him out, and carried him out. "So, how old are you, Scott?"

"6." He said, coughing from all the smoke. Just then, a large piece of the roof fell on top of my head. I fell over, cradling the little boy.

"Hey, Scott," I whispered with grunts, and more of the roof fell on top of my back. "Gotta get outta here. Take the stairs, but be careful, some of them aren't there. You can get out the front door through the living room. Now, go. Don't look back. Hurry!" I coughed, just barely lifting myself up enough for Scott to crawl out from underneath me. "Go!" I shouted as best I could when he looked back at me. I grunted again, when another, larger piece of the roof fell on me. I laid my head down on the dirty floor; I was just so tired. I closed my eyes for a second, then some more debris hit me on top of the head this time, knocking me out cold.

--

Thank Goodness, Scott got out okay. He came running to his mom, crying. He told her, "Mommy! Andi's still in there! She's on the floor!" His screeching voice made echoes that were heard by practically everyone on the block. Just then, a flash of red went into the house, picked the debris up from on top of me, grabbed me, and ran out.


	16. Chapter 16

Green Lantern was angry. It wasn't his fault, but every time he tried to have a relationship, the woman just blew up in his face and it would be awkward for the month. He grumbled when he went over to the large monitor in the main control room to find out where exactly they were. Some where between Gotham and Dakota? That's real specific. All of a sudden, a large gust of wind entered, and he knew exactly who it was.

"Bring another stray home?" GL asked, not even looking at who it was.

"Dude, she was in a burning building!" Flash defended himself.

"Right. That's what you always say." The monotonous sarcasm of GL never failed.

"But she really was this time! It was real! There was this kid, he was all like, 'she's still in there', so I went in and got her. I mean, she could've died." Flash defended himself.

GL finally turned around to face Flash and the girl who was being cradled in his arms. "You know, you could've given her to someone. Someone who could've taken care of her until she woke up."

Flash was at a loss for words. "I...didn't think of that. But she looked familiar." Now he was just making excuses. But she did look familiar to him.

GL sighed, "Set her down on the table, and I'll take a look at her." He grumbled as Flash laid her down on the table. Alright, now she looked so familiar that it wasn't even funny anymore.

Green Lantern came over, and shot a large green beam out of his ring. He ran the beam from feet to head, and turned back to the Flash. "She has a small concussion. Nothing big. She'll be fine. Now take her back." He obviously didn't care about the girl as much as Flash did.

"GL, just look at her. You can't tell me that she doesn't look familiar to you."

With hesitation, GL turned back to the girl, and actually looked at her this time. His serious look softened and he turned to Flash once again. "Where did you get her?" his voice quite serious.

"I told you. She was in this burning house in Gotham. She was under a bunch of rubble, and she wasn't moving."

GL took a very deep breath, "Do you know who she is? Like, her background?"

"No. She just looks familiar."

"Can I trust you with a secret?" GL asked in all seriousness.

The Flash got cocky for a second and said, "Dude."

Then GL turned away, "You're right, I can't."

"Common," Flash grabbed GL by the shoulder and turned him back around. "Lay it on me."

"Fine. But you must promise me that no one else in the tower will know she's here. Okay?"

"Yeah, anything."

"Alright." GL cleared his throat. "This is Batman's sister."

"Batman doesn't have a sister." Flash disagreed with a certain look on his face that said, 'dude, that's totally bubkes.'

"Batman does have a sister. She goes by the name of Andrea Hojem. His father was a very trustworthy man, and a couple that worked for him wanted to have a baby. But, they found out that the husband was sterile. So, they asked his father if he would help them out, and he obliged. And, she," he pointed to the girl with both hands. "was the byproduct."

"So..." It took a while for the Flash to catch on. "She's...Batman's...sister."

"Yes." GL acted like Flash was the dumbest person ever. "And he can't know that she's here."

"Well, why not? It'd be a nice family reunion." He just didn't get it.

"Because he's very protective of her, and he tries his best to keep her out of harm's way!" GL said through clenched teeth. It was seriously like the Flash was stupid or something.

"Well what do I do with her?"

"Just take her to your room, and when she wakes up I'll check her out, make sure every things good, and you can her home. Just leave Batman out of this." The Green Lantern warned to the younger hero.

"But what if you're not here when she wakes up? What do I do then?" Oh my goodness, he really didn't have any common sense, did he?

"Look, just lock her in your room until I get back, okay? Can you do that? Are you capable?" Flash nodded like he was just scolded, collected the girl, and ran her to his room. He gently placed her on his bed, and quickly fluffed the pillow for no apparent reason. He really didn't know what to do with her. Should he pull the sheet over her, or turn on the lights or anything. Flash just kind of stared at her for a while, fidgeting. Then, he just stopped and left the room. Remembering what GL said, he locked his room, making sure that no one else knew that she was here. He retraced his steps to see if he had dropped something that would look out of place in the station. Just when he thought that everything was okay, he found an old messenger bag and it's contents strewn across part of the main hallway. He quickly packed everything that was supposed to be in the bag back into the bag, and noticed a large bunch of green fabric at the bottom. Deciding to investigate, he ran back to his room, unlocked the door, and locked it behind him. He let out a breath that he had apparently been holding. Then, Flash dug out the green fabric and held it up for him to see the whole thing. It wasn't very big, it was like a bathing suit that covered the upper chest. Confused, the Flash looked back into the bag, seeing if there was anything more. And there was. There was a pair of army green cargo pants, two fingerless gloves that went to the elbow, a pair of camouflage Chuck Taylors (which wasn't too out of the ordinary for a teenager), and a mask. The mask was kind of like a masquerade mask, in where you hide your face with something else. In this case, it was a tree. A gorgeous maple, who's branches came out at the top which led down to the eye wholes as roots. Just when he was lost looking at the beautiful mask, the girl stirred, pulling him away from it. Quickly, Wally West shoved the costume back into the bag, and went to the bed side.

Slowly, the girl opened her eyes to reveal the greenest eyes he had ever seen. Just the sight of him there, pretty much scared her half to death. "Why is the Flash staring at me?" She asked no one in particular.

"Just calm down, alright. I saved you from the fire." He was very calming.

"Is Scott okay?" she asked with a distrusting look upon the poor, poor Flash.

"Yes, the little boy is okay. He was actually the one screaming for someone to go in and get you. Now, how do you feel? Are you alright?" He sounded generally concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm always okay. Now can you tell where I am so I can leave?" She felt a little bad for being so hostile towards him, but it bothered her how close he was sitting to me.

"You're in the Justice League Watch Tower. And you can't leave yet. Green Lantern wants to give a check up before you go. Oh, snap!" His face molded into one of shock as my eyes went from radiant green back to brown. "What just-whoa!"

When he was just freaked out about the whole eye changing thing, she launched off the bed, grabbed the messenger bag, and disappeared with the blowing of wind.

The only thing that Wally West could say, was, "What the?"


	17. Chapter 17

I had no idea what I was thinking. I just wanted to get out of there. And low and behold where I should end up: Right in front of Batman. Personally, I was petrified.

"Back...up!" I shouted, not feeling at all comfortable at the fact that he was standing right in front of me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, in a stern and vaguely familiar voice. Of course, he didn't back up.

"I...said...BACK UP!" I shouted at him, actually spooking him slightly at the outburst. He finally to a step back. "Okay." I took a deep breath. "Look, dudsie, I didn't choose to come here, alright? I was brought here."

"By who?" He sounded like he was going to kill someone.

Uh, I really didn't want him to kill Flash after he just saved me, so I lied to him. "I don't know. I just woke up here."

"Look, just leave, okay. Just go."

Then it hit me. "Fine; Hayes." I smirked, then left.

He stood there dumbfounded when The Flash spoke up from the other side of the hallway. "Hayes?"

Back to his old self, Batman replied, "Don't ask questions. It's not healthy." He then turned, and walked away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I walked from where Batman used to be, to the main hall. "Groovy," I said about the large metallic room with huge monitors and many, many buttons. I looked around the room that had a handful of people in it. None of which were the Green Lantern. Great. I was just about to turn and leave when someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face them.

"Who are you you and what are you doing here?" The mean lady with black hair said.

"Can you point me in the direction of the Green Lantern?" I said, completely evading her question.

"No. I can't ." She sounded even more upset than Brucie did. "Now, why don't you-,"

"Easy Diana, I'll take it from here." GL said, coming up behind me, firmly putting his hands on my shoulders, and turned me into the right direction. "Glad to see you're up." He said, taking me into this room that looked to be an infirmary.

"Yeah, me too. Now," I turned away from his hands. "What is with everyone and touching me today? I mean goodness, I feel like I've been violated."

"Why don't we just get this check up over with?" GL said, trying to get me out of the tower before Batman found out about my presence there.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's-uh, let's get this over with. Now, where do you want me?" I was all for getting out of there.

"There is fine. Just stand still." I obliged, and he shot a green beam from his ring that he brought down to my feet from my head, and then back up to my head. He seemed a little confused. "Everything is normal. Too normal."

"What do you mean by 'too normal'?" I sounded a little confused myself.

"I mean, you had a concussion twenty minutes ago."

I didn't know how to reply to that. Thankfully, I didn't have to, for my best friend in the entire just happened to pop in. "What is she doing here, John!" Bruce yelled very upset.

"Oh, great! You let him see you!" GL shouted at me.

"I didn't mean to! It just happened!"

"What are you doing here!" Hayes shouted at me, hoping that I, unlike Green Lantern, would answer his question.

"I don't know! I was in a house, trying to get the boy a-a-a-a-and the fire, and the roof it just fell, and I just happened to be under it. And this red guy he just comes and he picks me up and he brings me here!" I was speaking very quickly. Shoot, I could barely understand myself.

"Um, Okay." Bruce said after a while in his indoor voice. "Well, that was a good story. Now why don't you try again, and this time, make sense."

I took a deep breath to calm down. "I was walking home home from work, and there was a fire just down the street from where I was, so I went to see if there was anything I could do to help put out the fire. And people were talking about how there was a little boy trapped inside. So, being the WAYNE I am," I used much emphasis on the last name I should use, but I don't. "I went in to save him. I had the boy in my hands, I was taking him out of the room, and the roof fell on me. Little Boy got out okay, and The Flash, apparently, saved me. And he's the one that brought me here."

Bruce was silent for the longest time. Then, "Go home." he said in such a low voice that I could barely hear him.

"But, Bruce-" I started to protest.

"Go home." he said again, still in that low tone.

We looked each other in the eyes. We were still looking when I had conjured up a gust of wind to take me home.

"You know," Green Lantern said after I had left right before his unbelieving eyes. "You're going to have to explain to me what just happened."

"Maybe later." Batman was back. It was like Bruce had never been there


	18. Chapter 18

Throughout the weekend I thought, and I decided to do it. I was going out for Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. I don't know why, but it was my dream role. And just to be in a play would be fantastic. And so, I studied the movie. I would play the same scene over and over again on the television just to make sure that I knew every move and every note. Monday at 3:30 was the tryout for Judas, and I was gonna get the part. I had to.

"NEXT!" I heard someone shout from the auditorium. And when I walked in, Mr. Johann, the Forensics teacher; Mrs. Amory, the Ceramics teacher; and Mr. Murray, the Orchestra teacher, were looking at me in a strange way. "Excuse me, miss? You do realize that this is a man's role?" The director was speaking to me like I was a stupid child.

"Yes, I do realize that, sir. Just, let try me out." I was not going to take any crap that they might throw at me.

"Fine, whatever." Mr. Johann said. "Name, and what have you prepared for us?"

"Andrea Hojem, and I will be singing _Heaven On Their Minds_." They nodded, and I got ready.

"_My mind is clearer now._

_At last, all too well, I can see_

_Where we all- soon will be._

_If you strip away, the myth from the man_

_You will see, where we all soon will be..._

_Jesus!"_ I did amazing. Every note was right, I showed passion and emotion in the song, and when it came to my favorite part, I blew them away:

"_Listen, Jesus to the warning I give._

_Please remember that I want us to live,_

_But it's sad to see our chances, weakening with every hour_

_All your followers are blind!_

_Too much heaven on their minds._

_It was beautiful but now it's sour_

_Yes, it's all gone sour!_" I held out sour for as long as I possibly could, imitating Carl Anderson when he brought his voice up and down and then raised it as high as I could go.

But, just as I was about to do the last verse, Mr. Johann stopped me. "Stop. That's enough. We'll post the roles tomorrow. Thank you, and have a good day." I didn't argue. So, I left the auditorium, went into the bathroom, and went to work. I took my normal two-stop way to get to the basement: Bathroom to elevator, elevator to basement. As soon as the elevator door opened, Mr. Fox appeared out of no where.

"So, how'd it go?" He asked. See, he had helped me get ready for the part.

"Well, I thought I did just dandy, but they didn't like the fact that I was trying out for Judas. No, they didn't want the person who knew all the lines to play the traitor. They wanted a guy who looked like a traitor so that it would be easier to pull off the act."

Mr. Fox was even more upset than I was, "How could they do that? Have they no compassion for the arts? Back in the Shakespearean days-"

"Yo, Mr. Fox, y'all gotta calm down. I mean, it's not that big of an upset if I don't get the part. I'd just be a little angry, then I'll get over it like all the other upsets." I shrugged and went to sit down at my desk.

"Uh, there's no assignment today." Mr. Fox interrupted and I looked up at him, a little confused. "I just thought you might like to spend some quality time with your friends today. Having to work everyday isn't fair to you. So go home, and hang out with your friends. I don't want you to end up like Bruce."

Surprisingly, I took offense to that. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't want you to become a workaholic. Someone who gets so into what they do, that they lose themselves to it." Mr. Fox had a disappointed look on his face.

"You're talking about Batman, aren't you?"

He sighed. "Sometimes, yes. No get outta here." he urged me. I gave him a one sided smile, grabbed my bag from the top of the desk, and disappeared right in front of him, like he was a wall. "Yep, never gonna get used to that." He sighed, going into the elevator and heading up to his office.

--

When I reappeared, I honestly didn't like what I saw. "Okay!" I shouted, the people around me all stared. "What am I doing back here!" I shouted to no one in particular.

"What are you doing here?" GL whispered, pulling over to a wall, away from the just-as-confused-as-I-was people.

"I honestly don't know." Then, something hit me. It wasn't the most obvious answer, but it should have been pretty obvious. "Where's Static?"

"Static?" he sounded like he was surprised that I knew he was here.

"Yeah, Static and Gear. Where are they?" I knew that I was being a little moody, but I really didn't want to come back to the place where my bro just had to be.

"They're in the control room with Batman. So, if you please, just go home." He sounded angry. I really didn't know why, but he did.

"No. I got the day off so I could hang out with my friends, and that's what I'm going to do. And if I have to do that with or without your permission, that's fine with me." We stared each other right in the face before he smiled first.

"You guys really are related." And that made me smile.

"Just a little bit." And very fatherly like, he ruffled my short hair. No one's done that since...since...I can't remember the last time that someone showed affection for me like that.

When I had a glassy look in my eyes, he asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just that, no one's done that to me in forever. Do it again?" I looked up at him like a child would to their parents after they gave them a huge hug.

"Sure," and he did it again. It felt even better than the first.

"What are you doing here?" The voice of Batman interrupted my feelings of praise.

"I came here to see Static and Gear. See, I got the night off to go hang out with my friends, and they just happen to be here." And for some reason, Bruce didn't seem to care.

"I guess you can hang with them until we get back." he patted my bicep, and headed towards the ship dock.

Both GL and I were dumbstruck for a moment. "Did he just go from Batman to Bruce in like, .2 seconds?" I asked in a quiet and shocked tone.

"I think so." he imitated my confusedness.

"Dudsie! You're back!" The Flash shouted and 'jogged' over to us. "And you're not unconscious!"

"Dude, I know! Isn't it awesome!" I honestly don't know why I was happy to see him, I barely even knew him.

"Dudsie! What was with the whole disappearing act? That was awesome!" We continued to act like we were BF's who hadn't seen each other in a year, and it kind of got on Green Lantern's nerves.

"What are you two doing?! You don't even like each other!" He was fed up with the both of us.

Then we looked at the other and shrugged our shoulders. "Dude we should totally be friends." I said after turning away from GL and back to Flash.

"I know. We totally should." Then, out of no where we did a secret handshake. It was upper fist bump, lower fist bump, middle fist bump, slap hand, slap hand, then a battle cry of the moist random noises that we could think of. After we did it, we kind of stared at each other wondering how we even knew what the secret handshake was.

After a long and awkward silence, I said to him, "Go save the world." And I turned towards the control room to look for Virgil and Richie.


	19. Chapter 19

It took me a while to find the control room, but when I did, I didn't find them. So, the next place I tried was obviously the kitchen. And I did see them raiding the refrigerator. Now, they didn't see me when I entered, so I decided to make an entrance. "Now what did I tell y'all about leaving me behind?" I teased them. They jumped when they heard me because they thought that they were all alone in the Watch Tower.

"Andi, what're you doing here?" Static stood up and gave me a hug, like, a man hug.

"Well, I got the day off to hang out with my friends, and I came to find you." Richie also came up and man hugged me. "So, what're y'all doing in the JL tower?"

"We could ask you the same thing." Gear responded.

"Well, I was told to hang out with my friends, so I went to find you, and poof, here I am." I sat down at the table with them. "So, what's new?"

"I just spent like five gazillion calories recharging this place. Hey, how did your audition go?" Static asked, sliding the pizza pan that was in front of them over to me.

"The one guy didn't like me-"

Gear interrupted, "Why not? From what we heard, you were great."

Now I was confused, "But, y'all weren't at the audition."

"Don't you remember? You sang for us that one time in the park when you asked us if you should go out for it or not." Static got to my brain, and I tried to remember. "Now personally, I think you'd make a great Judas-"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Only a little offense was in my voice, the rest was comical.

He started to stutter with embarrassment, "N-n-nothing, I-I-I didn't mean anything by it-"

"Dude, it's cool. I kid, I joke, it's what I do. Don't worry about it." I reassured him.

Static got up to go to the counter, when he said, "Did you see that?" he was looking at the screen.

"See what?" Gear asked, looking up from the pizza he had in his hands.

"There was a face looking at us on the screen. It didn't look human."

"Psh, big deal." Gear dismissed. "We just spent the whole day with a Martian and a Phanigarian." He put his helmet on when the alarm began to run.

"That can't be good." Static said, and then the door that led to outside space opened. We all grabbed onto the nearest thing possible: Gear and Static chairs,and I grabbed onto the base of the table. We held on for as long as we could, and Static tried to close the open door by shocking it, but it did not prevail. And then, Richie started slipping; I tried to help him by reaching for him, but Back Pack got there before I did. Then, Static grabbed the refrigerator, and flung it at the door. And it help for a minute, but that minute was enough for us to run to the other side of the wall, and shut the door; only with the help of Back Pack though. "I think I've lost my appetite." Static concluded, resting against the wall. From there, we went our separate ways: Both Static and Gear went back into the control room, while I went to the rest of the rooms to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.

I appeared and disappeared in a number of rooms, just checking to make sure everything was everything. When I came to what was Batman's room, a took a little extra time looking around so that I could make up for lost time and get to know him a little bit more. At a glance, it looked like every other room, which was plain and boring. But, I went a little deeper. I know that I was snooping, but I went through his bed side drawers, and I found something: it was that picture. The one I had slipped him that day on the train. I sat down on his bed in disbelief. He kept it? I placed it carefully back into the drawer, and closed it quietly and gently. This was wrong. I shouldn't have even thought about going through his drawers. My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and a robot maid rolling in. It started to vacuum the floor, but after a minute, it went crazy and shot something out of its 'hand' at me. I felt that something pierce my neck. I hissed in pain, still looking at the robot. Then, it blew some kind of smoke from it's 'hand'. I started to breathe it in when I blacked out, face down upon his bed.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Two hours later, the JL were back, Brainiac was destroyed, and Gear and Static were in the infirmary getting checked out. Batman was relieved at the fact that Brainiac was back inside his protective cylinder; yet worried because he had not seen hide nor hair of me since he got back. He was heading to his room when he saw GL. "John, have you seen Gypsy? I can't find her anywhere."

"Gypsy?"

Oh, he forgot that GL didn't know her childhood nickname. "Andrea?"

"I'm sorry Bruce, I haven't seen her." He sounded generally sorry.

"Tell me if you do."

"Of course." Bruce then went past him, and started for his room again. He sighed when he opened the door, and gasped when he saw me face down on his bed.

"Andi? No, no, no, no, no, no!" He hurried over, flipped me, and kind of cradled me in his lap. "What happened? JOHN!"


	20. Chapter 20

My eyes shot open. Where was I? I looked around, and saw dozens of...floating elevators? Was I in Wonka's factory? Looking around, I took in my surroundings: Blue sky, green grass, there weren't in any trees, just hills. And the flying elevators. "Where am I?" I asked myself.

A cartoon flower popped out of the ground to answer me, "You're in your head." It said in probably the happiest voice possible.

"Okay, um..." It was very awkward talking to a _cartoon_ flower. "So...I'm crazy?"

"No."

"Then what?"

It thought for a second. "Well, he could explain it better than I could." Then, the flower was sucked back into the ground as one of the elevators landed, and a man walked out. Mr. Fox?!

"Mr. Fox," I started calmly. "What are you doing in my head? As a matter of fact, what am I doing in my head?"

When he made to sit down when a wooden chair came up out of the ground like the flower did. "Please, sit." I started to sit down and another chair popped up, as well as a table with a pot of tea, cups, and saucers. Okay, so I was a little freaked out. "Okay, where to begin, where to begin." he filled his cup, and took a sip.

"How about, you tell me why we are in my head. No one should ever be in my head."

"You see, that dart released a very heavy sedative. And the powder was a powerful hallucinogen that makes you experience your worst fears." He said that in the most calm fashion.

I decided to be a smart ass. "Is my worst fear talking to you, cause I'm a little freaked out."

"No, no no." He chuckled. "Your worst fear, is SMALL SPACES!" When he shouted the last two words, four elevator walls came up from the ground and surrounded us. "Let's see how long you can last in your own mind." He had become dark, and disappeared laughing. I was now sitting on the floor, and I had started breathe in and out slowly.

After a while, "How could you?" boomed from everywhere.

I tried to ignore it, but it started again in a different voice. "I had such hope for you. But you have failed." Gordon? "I thought you were better."

"Gordon?" I asked.

Just then, he stepped out of the darkness and a light came on from the ceiling. "How could you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

Then Bruce stepped up next to him. "We thought we could trust you."

"What do you mean?" I pleaded.

"You killed her," Gordon said full of hate.

"No," I shook my head. "I didn't mean-"

"Yes you did and you know it." Bruce said in the same type of voice.

"No, no I didn't mean to I swear." Tears started to stream down my face.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?!" A woman's voice shrieked. Then, the familiar figure of a woman appeared next to Bruce. "I HAD A FAMILY!! MY WHOLE LIFE WAS AHEAD OF ME!" She screamed, and I didn't know what to do but cry. Then, Mrs. Skylar, Richie, and Virgil joined the group, and started to yell things about me disappointing them.

"I swear, I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I was only a kid." I sobbed. "I'm so sorry," I fell to the ground from my sitting position and cried even harder. Before I knew it, someone came along and picked me up off the ground.

"Hey, don't cry." Bruce tilted my face up and wiped away my tear streams. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't mean to. I know you didn't. You'll be okay, I'm here." he pulled me into a tight hug. "I'm here for you Andi, never forget that." I slowly hugged him back. "I love you Andrea. And you know that. And you know that I would never do anything to hurt you."

"I love you Brucie." I cried into his shoulder. Then, a blinding white light came out from behind Bruce, and engulfed the both of us. And then, I saw a ceiling and the faces of Green Lantern, The Flash, and Batman all staring down at me. I had a hard time breathing so they put a mask over my nose and mouth.

"It's okay, Gorgeous. We're here. You're going to be okay." Batman grabbed my hand and squeezed it. With any kind of strength, I squeezed back.

"What happened?" I asked, barely moving my lips.

"Shh, rest now, we'll talk later. You just gotta get better." He looked down at our hands and then back up to my face. "You gotta get better."

I slightly nodded, then closed my eyes and went to sleep.

"Is she going to be okay?" Flash asked GL concernedly.

"Yeah, she will be. The liquid that Bruce gave her got rid of the virus from her system. She's just coming off of the sedative. She'll be fine."

"How did you get that liquid anyway?" Flash asked Batman.

"It's a cure to a weaponized hallucinogen that a group of vigilantes tried to use to destroy Gotham. I have actually felt the effects before, and I almost died because of it. Luckily, my friend in Applied Sciences, created a cure and made multiples of it. And I brought a vile up here just in case I had to use it for some odd reason. I just don't know how that robot got that stupid blue flower." Batman was angry, and he didn't know how much longer he could suppress it.

"Look, we don't know how it got it. But it doesn't have it anymore. And that's what matters." Flash said, patting Batman on the shoulder. "Now Andi's going to be okay. We just have to let time take it from here."

"I know. I'm just worried. She's the only one I got left-"

"We're all worried, Bruce," GL interrupted him. "But she is going to be okay. I can promise you that. Let's just let her get some sleep, she had a rough dream." he looked down to what was like a Richter scale that was connected to my head. From the first inch of straight line was a huge mass of scribbles that nearly went off the paper.


	21. Chapter 21

"_Common! We're going to be late!" Shannon State said to me very sternly as she dragged me by the arm towards the subway. It was night and there was barely anyone around, and the people who were there, didn't even care what was happening around them._

"_But, Ms. State, I don't want to go! I don't like him." I whined, falling behind her in the spinning X entrance._

_We were waiting in front of the pay phones when she turned around abruptly and growled through her teeth. "Don't you ever say that about Jameson! He may well be your next father! Hell, after all he's done for you, you should call him a father!"_

_'Right, because obviously beating me is a good thing,' I thought to myself. _

_She continued talking about how awesome Jameson was, and my mind began to wonder a little until she said, "Do you understand me?"_

_I finally stood up for myself, "Understand what? That beating a eight year old is good for them? Never heard that one before." I shot back. With red hot fury, she threw me at one of the phones and I crashed it, pulling the phone out of the socket on my way down. I started whining again when I saw that I had a deep and long cut on my right arm. My jacket had a cut right through it, and I quickly looked up at the phone and saw a trail of blood leading down the entire left corner side. I grabbed my arm in pain and she picked me up._

"_Never talk back to me! I swear if social services didn't come by every now and then, you would be long gone by now." She threatened. "Now common. Our train is here!" She grabbed my not injured arm, and started to drag me to the train._

"_What are you doing?" A man behind us asked._

_Ms. State turned around to face a red haired man with bright green eyes in a faded red sports coat with a black t-shirt under it who looked mildly upset. "Going on the subway with my daughter." _

_He took a very quick glance at me and saw that I was shaking my head violently with a terrified look on my face. "Well, she's injured. She needs to go to the hospital." He was being stern about the fact that I was hurt._

"_We're going to the hospital, right now." She lied, inching towards the subway._

"_No. You're not. See that subway is going towards West Virginia, the hospital is the other way." He stepped up to her and tenderly put a hand on my shoulder. "If you're not going to, then I'm taking her to the hospital, ma'am." he finished angrily. _

"_I will never let you take her." She spat with venom. Finding that she had loosened her death grip just a little, I spun out of it, and ran to the man._

"_Looks like you don't have a choice." He said with a little victory._

_She grabbed at me, but I backed out of her reach. In a furious defeat, she said, "Fine. But they will send you back to me." She turned in a huff and went onto the train._

"_Thank you so much." I gratefully said while clinging to his legs. He ruffles my hair, and I looked up at him with a little confusion. "What did you do that for?" _

"_It's a sign of affection." He explained. "People do it to show a sense of pride in another." He then patted my shoulder. "Let's get you to the hospital." I nodded and let go of his leg to walk beside him._

_We were walking to the bus stop when I asked, "What's you name?" In an innocent voice._

_He hesitated for a few seconds before he answered, "Wally West. And you?"_

"_Andrea Hojem." When we got to the bus stop, we continued to ask each other questions._

"_What's your favorite color?" He said._

"_Green. You?"_

"_Red."_

_After one of us would ask a question, we would switch. "What's your favorite food?"_

"_Pizza."_

"_Me too." We smiled at each other at the similarity. _

"_How's that arm?" He asked when the bus arrived._

"_Okay. It still hurts though." I said as we boarded the bus. We went to one of the middle seats, me at the window, him in the aisle._

"_Don't worry, we'll get you fixed up, and I will do everything I can to get you out of her hair. I promise." He said, reassuring me that everything was going to be alright._

"_How old are you?" I asked, restarting our 20 Questions game._

"_22."_

"_8."_

"_Do you know who your real parents are?"_

_My answer was delayed a few seconds, "Yes."_

"_Do you feel comfortable enough to tell me who they are?" He sounded quite curious._

"_Sure. Jeff and Emily Hojem. But they died. Do you have any family?" I swung the question at him._

"_I have parents, but I mostly consider my Aunt Iris more of a parent than anyone." he said. "Do you have anyone you consider family?"_

"_Yes. A kid named Bruce, and a man named Alfred. They took care of me for a while."_

_We kept asking questions until we got off at the Hospital. When we went in, the place was dead (no pun intended). He took me up to the front desk where a nurse was reading a magazine. "Excuse me?" The nurse looked up at us like she could honestly care less about what are problem was. "Can I get a doctor to see my sister?"_

"_What's wrong?" She asked in a monotonous voice._

"_Well, she has a large cut on her arm," he showed her my bloody jacket sleeve. "And I need a doctor to stitch her up." he was becoming stern again._

"_Have a seat, a doctor will be with you in a minute." She said in the same monotonous tone as before._

_Wally thanked her, and we sat down in two of the chairs that were the closest to the desk._

"_How's your arm feeling?" he concernedly whispered._

_I moved it up and down a little, "Okay, it's becoming numb though," and I smelled it. "And it's starting to smell like almonds."_

_He chuckled a little. "Don't worry, we'll get it fixed." Wally then put his arm around my shoulders, and held me close to him like a father to a child._

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

I slowly opened my eyes, and realized that for the first time in a long time, I had a normal dream, not a nightmare or nothing. But a dream. I threw the one blanket on me off, and went to find him. I made my way through the hallways until I got to the control room. Finding no one, I went to the other rooms and again found no one. Since when do the Justice League leave the Watch Tower empty?

"Hello?" I called out frequently. Finding no soul yet again, I decided to go back to the infirmary and just wait for someone to return. It seemed like hours before I decided to go see if absolutely anyone had returned. And thank goodness someone did. "GL, dudsie, I am so bored right now. There was no one here for hours! I was going crazy!"

"I'm so glad you're awake." he said sarcastically.

"Whatever. Have you seen Flash? I need to talk to him."

"Your BFF Jill is in the exercise room. But are you okay? Even with your healing powers, you shouldn't have recovered this quickly." Why was everyone so worried about me? It's not like I can't take care of myself.

"Check me out for yourself if your that worried." I responded.

And he did. After his green beam had covered me twice, he said, "You check out. But I don't think I will ever understand this healing of yours."

"Dude, I've healed all of my known life, and I still don't even understand it. I'll catch you later." I said to him before I made for the exercise room. When I got to the room, I did find the Flash, and he was on a treadmill; and at the speed he was going, it was probably walking to what he was used to.

"Sup, Andi?" he greeted when I came over to him.

"I know you." Was what I replied with.

He got a little confused look on his face. "Yeah, I'm the Flash and you're Andrea Hojem."

"Your favorite color is red." I really hoped he remembered.

"And your point it?"

"You love pizza. It's your favorite food."

"Okay, are you like stalking me?" He was becoming completely freaked.

"Oh, Wally, don't you remember?" He didn't say anything. "You honestly don't remember telling me about your Aunt Iris, do you?"

He shook his head with wide eyes. "I don't tell people about my Aunt."

"What about the little girl? You remember her, right?" He shook his head again. "Six years ago, you took a little girl from the subway with a large cut in her arm to the hospital. You were fighting with the woman that was with her because she wouldn't take her to the hospital. After the woman left, you took her on a bus where you were asking her questions so that she wouldn't be scared. She then in turn asked you questions. You asked each other stuff like what was your favorite color, food, and what family members you had. She told you what her parents names were, and you told her about your Aunt Iris." I paused for a minute so that he might connect how I knew what had happened to me being that girl.

"How do you know that?" by now he had stopped running and was just standing on the frozen treadmill staring at me who was leaning on it.

"Because I was that little girl." From then on, we were quiet, just staring at one another.

After a while, he said, "Why couldn't I remember? I mean, you told me your name back then and now."

"I don't know, it's been a while-"

"But you remembered it perfectly-"

"I remember a lot of things." I interrupted him.


	22. Chapter 22

That next day, which just happened to be a Thursday, everything was fine. Richie, Virgil and I walked to school together, and it was a normal day...mostly. As soon as we got to school, Richie just left the two of at the door. When we asked him where he was going, he answered with, 'Class.' Just one word.

"Is he okay?" I asked Virgil as we walked the other way, towards the auditorium.

"I don't know. He's been acting a little strange ever since we got back from the Tower." He answered as we went down the hallway to where the roles were posted.

"Yeah, he has. Okay," I turned around and closed my eyes when we got to the paper. "Give me the truth."

He said in a 'just checking' voice. "Are you sure you want the truth?"

"Yeah, just give it to me." I had the entire Butterfly Emporium in my stomach.

"I don't know, Andi." He was teasing in a sad kind of way.

"Just do it. Please."

"Well, you...made it!" He turned me around to show the giant grin on his face. I couldn't believe it. Judas, my dream role. The rest of the day everything was normal, well everything except for Richie. He just seemed so robotic and emo. On my way home with Virgil, we saw a six foot red blur pass us.

I turned to him and said, "Was that-?"

But I was interrupted by the red blur come back to us, and of course, it was my BFF Wally. "Hey, have you guys seen Gear? I can't find him."

"I haven't seen him," Virgil responded. "He's been avoiding us all day."

"He lives next door to me. He could be taking a detour home."

He seemed grateful, "Thanks, guys. I'll see y'all later." Then he ran in the direction he was heading in the first place.

"I really want to know what's bugging Richie. I mean, dude's my best friend. But he won't tell me." He then got an idea. "But I think I know someone he will tell." He then stared at me.

"What?" I asked, as if I didn't already know his plan. "Oh no no no no, if he didn't tell you, he's not going to tell me."

"But you can try. Please." Oh God, he was giving me puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. But I'm going in there as Arbora." After a second, he knew.

"You got a costume." He smiled, and I nodded. "And a mask?" Again, I nodded. "Arbora, huh?"

"Yeah, it's Latin for tree."

"Creative, I like it." He smiled again. "Where is it?"

"At my house."

"Let's go, then." He pushed me forward, and I drug him into the nearest alley, and we disappeared and reappeared inside my house. I went upstairs to change and he waited anxiously as Static downstairs. "Common, let's see it!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm coming." I shouted down the stairs. This time I decided to make an entrance, and I made leaves fly around me when I appeared in the living room. "I know it's not a very good costume, but it was the best thing I could come up with."

He started circling me, checking out my entire costume. "It's good for a start. When you get into some real superheroing, I'll see what I can do about getting you an official symbol."

"Hold up now, Static. Don't get ahead of yourself, this is probably a one time thing."

"Whatever you say," He said like he didn't believe me for a second. "Let's go."

"Where we going?" I said as I grabbed his arm and prepared to disappear yet again.

"Head Quarters." I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Abandoned gas station."

"Right." I nodded with a smirk.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Richie?" Virgil called when he opened the door to Head Quarters. "You in here?" Then he looked around to see a huge mess. "Whoa, looks like someone had a house party and forgot to invite me."

"Me too." I agreed as we walked inside.

"Richie!" He called again. Just as he was about to call again, a hand from the shadows grabbed his shoulder. He jumped only to have Batman try to calm him down.

"Easy Static. We're on your side."

"Batman."

"I brought some company," he said and Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and J'onn walked in.

"I didn't expect to see you guys again so soon. If you came for the party, it looks like it's over." He said showing them the mess.

"Your friend is missing, and so is ours." Hawkgirl said in all seriousness.

"Flash came here hours ago to see if Brainiac escaped into Gear's computer." Green Lantern said after her.

"We haven't heard from him all day, that's suspicious." J'onn was finishing. "Even factoring in his usual irresponsibility."

"Well, I don't know where Flash is, but Richie should be just a shock box call away." Static pulled a shock box from his coat pocket. "It's our personal communicator. Pretty cool, huh?" They just stared at him.

"Make the call." Hawkgirl ordered.

"Right, sorry." He apologized. "Yo, Gear, can you hear me? Come in Gear, come in. Please come in."

Then, Richie's crackly voice came over, "What is it, Static?"

"I'm here with the Justice League, they need to see Backpack. Where are you anyway?"

"I'm at the old steel mill." Richie's voice said. "I'm working on a new project."

"What new project?" Static sounded confused.

"It's very...special. Why don't you come over to see it?" Richie didn't sound right to me. Not at all. He's not okay.

"Focus Gear. Justice League, here. They wanna look at Backpack." He pushed Gear.

"Well I have Backpack here with me. Come meet me here. All of you." Static looked at Batman, and he nodded.

"Okay."

"Good. I think you'll be impressed." Then, the line went down.

"Let's go." Batman said, leading the group out of Head Quarters.

"Batman," I softly called to him. When he turned, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

He nodded. "What's up?"

"Don't go."

"Why not?" he didn't seem angry or confused. He was Batman.

"That wasn't Richie. Didn't you hear it? It was too robotic to be human. It wasn't real." He stared down at me, and I stared up.

"Look, if there's trouble, will take care of it." He patted my shoulder. "Don't worry. Nice costume."

When he turned away, I blurted out, "I got the part."

He turned around and cocked his head. "What part?"

"Judas, I got the part." He didn't look mad. I just hope that wasn't another mask.

"Great. Tell me when it is, and I'll be there." He smiled. He actually smiled. When he turned and walked over to the rest of the group, he looked over his shoulder. "You coming or not?"

"Yeah, I'll be there." I nodded, and followed him.


	23. Chapter 23

"So, Arbora?" Batman questioned my name as we were flying.

"Yeah, you have a problem with that name?" I threatened him like we used to kid around.

"No, it's interesting."

"It's Latin." We were glaring at the other for no apparent reason when GL stepped in between us.

"Can you please stop fighting? You are acting like children! Sibling children!"

We both looked up at him at the fact that he just said the most oblivious thing...ever. "Dude." I said, shaking my head.

"Oh. Sorry." He sat down, blushing just a little.

Then, it hit Static. "Really?"

Him suddenly being there startled me just a bit. "Yes...yes. Bruce Wayne is my brother." I said in a lower voice than I normally would have.

"So your real name is-"

I cut him off. "Yes, Andrea Wayne. But I used my mothers name when I ran away."

Static turned to Batman. "And you're just...okay with this?"

He looked at him like he was stupid. "Like I really had a choice in the matter." Static cringed when Batman glared at him. And oddly enough, we didn't talk the rest of the flight over to the steel mill. When we entered the building, it was completely dark. So, Green Lantern used his ring as a flashlight. "Notice anything?" Batman asked as we started to walk forwards.

"You don't look too good in green?" Static asked being a smart alack.

"This abandoned steel mill been active recently." Hawkgirl observed as she picked up a piece of hot metal.

"Well, Gear did say he's been working here." Static said to her as she threw the piece over her shoulder.

We continued to walk when J'onn said, "Odd. My telepathic powers detect no trace of him." Then we entered a new and larger and still dark room.

"This place could use some light." Static said, then he shot a beam of electricity at a lamp on the ceiling, and the whole room lit up showing massive machines that didn't look like they could be made by Gear.

"There's no way a high school kid made all of this," Green Lantern concluded.

"Stay alert." Batman ordered, and we all cautiously moved forward.

Then out of nowhere Flash came running from the side. "Hey guys, miss me?"

"Where have you been?" GL asked.

"With Richie and his computer." Flash answered.

"Did you learn anything?" Hawkgirl asked him, to which he replied:

"Plenty." And with an evil grin, he ran in and out of all of us and placed a circle on everyone. "There, is everybody connected?"

"Yes, we await your commands, Brainiac." We all said in unison.

I don't know how, but Static somehow got his off. "Yo, what just happened?" he asked no one in particular. "Ah, guys?" he asked wearily as he saw that the rest of us were as still as those guards in England. "Richie?" he called to the person in the shadows.

"Your natural electrical field short circuited my thought control discs." Two voices said simultaneously.

"What are you talking about?"

"I am not Richie." The two voices said. But, it then went to one voice. "I am Brainiac."

"Brainiac?" Static was surprised. "What have you done to Richie?" he was angry.

"Your friend is totally under my control."

"I thought we wiped you out."

"You merely delayed the inevitable, Static. I still intend to digitize all information on this planet. And then destroy it." Brainiac replied.

"You wanna rip and burn the Earth? I don't think so." He got ready to shoot static at will.

"Go ahead," Brainiac challenged. "The only one who will feel anything is your friend."

"Richie, if you can hear me you gotta fight him," Static pleaded. "I broke free from his mind control, you can too."

Then Richie broke free for a moment or two, and he mumbled. "Virgil," he covered his face with his hands, then looked at him. "Control, control, control."

"That's it Richie, fight him, I'll help you." Static cheered in vain.

Richie groaned and Brainiac had returned. "You should be more concerned with helping your self, Justice League, destroy him. Static tried to reason with them, but of course they didn't listen, and he took off. They followed him. "Andrea," he said strolling up to me. "Everyone you have ever loved, is dead. Gordon, Alfred, Bruce, Lucius, John, Wally. All murdered by the same man."

"Who?" Anger had completely filled me with the want of revenge.

"Static." He didn't need to tell me twice. At once I disappeared and reappeared right behind Static after GL had recovered from Hawkgirl's 'light tap'.

"I think that's everyone." he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Think again, Static." He turned around in surprise and I pushed him, creating a gust that took him further than any push could have. When the others tried to restrain me, I cried an angry cry as I created a huge circle of wind that brought along dirt and random pieces of old metal with it and pushed everyone a hundred feet from where I was. I glided over to where Static was getting up, and I said in the most violent voice I had ever made. "You killed them. All of them." Just then, the vines on my arms peeled off, became real, and slowly started towards Static.

"I didn't kill anyone, I swear." he pleaded, but I didn't listen.

"Don't lie to me." I growled as the vines ripped after Static, grabbed around his throat and started squeezing him.

"I'm not lying." He breathed grabbing at the vines and trying to peel them off. He looked into my eyes, and saw nothing. The entire eyeball was glowing bright green.

"No lying!" I screamed as I lifted the both of us off of the ground. The sky blackened and storm clouds rushed in. "I'm going to kill you, just like you killed them."

"Andi, please," he tried one last time. Was he crying? I saw a tear fall onto his cheek and smiled.

"Say 'hi' to them for me," I was about to end everything, when I was grabbed from behind by two very strong arms. My vines recoiled back onto my arms, and I tried to break free from the arms, but to no avail. Then, I felt the ground beneath my feet. Static came up to me, and sent a shock through me disabling the thought control device. I screamed in pain, but then felt very weak. I fell limp in the arms, and they loosened so as to give me some slack. I was leaning forward, but the person who held me, tipped me back against them.

I slowly opened my eyes which had gone back to there normal brown, and stared up to find Bruce staring back at me. "Hey Gypsy, you okay?" He was wearing his bat suit, but no mask? He took off his mask for me? I was better than okay, I was great. Wait! Where was Static?

"Static, Where's Static?" I got with Bruce's help, and didn't want to tell me, but he had to.

"He's over there." he helped me over there, just spotting me so I didn't fall.

When I knelt down beside him, J'onn and GL went over to Bruce and said quietly, hoping that I would not hear, "He's not breathing well. She nearly crushed his airway." GL whispered.

"She didn't mean it-" Bruce started, but J'onn interrupted him.

"But do you think that's how he's gonna see it."

I could hear them, and made me a little upset. I looked down at the red lines that ran across his neck and I knew I had to help him. Like I helped myself so many times before. "Everybody, back up." They were a little surprised that I spoke. "Please back up. Now." I said in a little more sterner voice.

They didn't. "Guys, common give her some space." Flash said, backing up when no one else did.

"Common!" Batman spoke up. He backed up as well, and when they still didn't. "Now!" And they finally obliged.

I leaned over Static and said in a calm tone, "I'm gonna fix this, I promise. Just close your eyes, and keep breathing." He nodded painfully, and closed his eyes. I took a deep breath, clapped my hands together, and started rubbing them together until they burned. I then gently laid them onto his neck and stressed all of my muscles, and felt my neck getting slightly weaker. I started having trouble breathing, but I kept going. After another thirty seconds, I couldn't even breathe anymore. I finally broke away, and tried to breathe; it was hard, but I did it.

Static sat up, and said, "How did you do that?"

I stayed turned away, "I healed you."

"Why?"

"Because it's my fault." a tear escaped, and it started to sprinkle in the middle of a now clear blue sky.

"You have the vine marks-"

"It's the price I pay, but it's worth it." I just couldn't bring myself to look at him. Wally saw the pain on my face, and knelt down and hugged me. I hugged him back and let out all of the sadness into it.

When he let me go at arms length, he said, "You gonna be okay?" I nodded. "I'm always here for you. You know that, right?" I nodded again, and smiled a little. And, being the BF's we were, we did the secret handshake, just quietly.

"Thank you, Arbora." Static said.

"Welcome." I said lowly and he turned away to the others.

Then Bruce came and sat down in front of me, his mask in his lap. "Andi, why do we fall?"

"What?" I asked, for I hadn't heard that in almost ten years.

"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. Static has forgiven you faster than anyone ever has before, least besides me. Why can't you forgive yourself?"

"Because it was my fault-" My head fell, but Bruce lifted it up with his finger.

"It was not your fault. It was him, and him alone. Do you understand me?" He looked into my eyes, and I nodded. "Good. Now let's go, we have to save Gear."

"I'm not ready to be a superhero, Bruce."

"So your quitting?" he questioned. "Wayne's don't quit."

"I'm not quitting. Just putting it on pause until I am ready. Right now, I just wanna go home."

He didn't look up when he said, "Flash," he came at once. "Will you take her home? She's not feeling too well."

"Of course," He picked me up, and started to run me home.


	24. Chapter 24

The next day I was completely healed. As was Richie. Or so Flash told me. I can't forgive myself. I am so ashamed at what I did, that I can't even glance at Virgil or Richie. I didn't walk with them to school, I didn't talk to them all day. I completely shut everyone out. I didn't talk during any classes, or even at the Drama Club meeting after school. Although Mrs. Amory, the director of the play, seemed a little concerned about my whole not talking thing.

"Andi," she pulled me aside after the meeting was over. "Are you all right? You seemed a little out there."

"I'm fine," my voice was raspy from ignoring life. "It's just that my guardian died last night." I lied tremendously.

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here-"

"I know. But I'll be fine, okay? I promise." She did not nod assuringly, but she still nodded. I went to the bathroom, and went straight to work. I didn't want to go, but the bills were not going to pay themselves. After I had punched in, I went down to the basement. When I sat down at my desk and opened the drawer, there was only a single piece of paper with the words: We need to talk. Lucius Fox. Oh great, now I'm in even more trouble. I groaned as I got up and went to the elevator. I don't know why I just didn't appear where Mr. Fox was. I guess it was my nerves and not wanting to ever do anything horrible again. I didn't even realize when the elevator had stopped until a few men in suits had entered the elevator. I slipped past them, and felt like I was taking a walk of shame to Mr. Fox's office. I knocked on his door, and when he said, 'Come in,' I slowly pushed open the door, and ambled in. "You wanted to see me, sir?" I said in a whispered voice.

"Yes, please sit," I sat down across from him, and he just stared at me. "So, I have been told of your activities yesterday-"

"Bruce, right?" I silently interrupted him.

"Yes, Mr. Wayne. I wanted to ask if you were okay. Because if you need time, I can give it to you."

"I'll be fine, Mr. Fox. I'm just a little shaken, as I'm sure Static is."

"I also would like to know, as does Mr. Wayne, what he said to you that made you so angry."

I did not want to talk about that, "I really don't-"

"I know that you probably don't want to talk about that, but, both Mr. Wayne and myself worry about you. And we just want what's best for you. Please, Miss Wayne." No one had ever called me that before, and it felt kind of nice. "We just want you to be okay, and safe."

I couldn't help it, he was so nice and gentle. "He told me, that Static had murdered everyone I loved. And they consisted of, James Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne, Wally West, John Stewart, and you." I stopped for a second when it started to cloud outside, and everything became dark. "I was so scared. I had to go down very deep inside to think for myself, but when I was thinking, I became terribly afraid of myself. All I remembered was Static crying and begging for his life, and I wanted so bad to let him go, and beg for forgiveness. I couldn't though, Brainiac had overpowered me, and he almost used me to kill him." By now, I was crying, and a thunder and lightning storm was pouring outside. "I tried to stop him, I really did. But I was able to heal Static, after he had taken the thought controlling device off of me, and he's alright." I was staring down at the floor during the story, and when I looked up, I saw a tear fall from Mr. Fox's eyes, and that made me even more upset. "I didn't want to make you cry, Mr. Fox. I really didn't."

And yet, he waved me off. "Don't worry about it. It's okay. I'm just upset that you were put into this predicament, because of me."

"No, it wasn't your fault at all, Mr. Fox. It was Charlie, and him alone." He didn't seem convinced at all that it wasn't his fault. "I forgive you for being human." He still didn't seem at all convinced. "Mr. Fox, why do we fall?" He didn't understand because he was never told that before. "So that we can learn to pick ourselves up. I am learning to pick myself up, and forgive myself about what happened. You need to learn to pick yourself up, and forgive what does not need forgiving, because it was not your fault." I finished my little speech, and he just stared.

"Wow, you really are a Wayne." He sounded breathless, and kind of relieved.

"Yeah, I am."

"You sounded just like Thomas used to."

"Is that a good thing?" I questioned, but I already knew the answer.

"It's a very good thing, Andrea. You can either go to work now, or you can go home. If you want it, I can give you paid leave." He offered.

I thought about it, "Maybe a day or two. I have to tell them. Static, Gear, and Bruce. It would be better if I told Bruce than you telling him." He simply nodded.

"Have a fun two days, I'll see you on Wednesday." He smiled.

Wait, I thought as I walked out of his office. Wednesday would be three days, not two. I chuckled a little, when I ran into my best friend. "Wally? What are you doing here?" I asked Flash in street clothes as he headed upstairs.

"I came to find you. Static and Gear came to me saying that you were acting a little weird. I wanted to know why." He said, as he walked with me to the elevator.

"I know that I was acting weird today, but I am working on it. And I will be able to speak and look at them soon." I said nervously for he was standing very close to me. "Could you please, take a step over, just one."

He seemed confused as he took that one step. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am okay. I'm just a little claustrophobic. Which is why I like it when people back up when I ask them to." I said in deep breaths.

"I think I knew it. Always. Especially when you blew up at Batman the first time you met him." He smiled a little as did I. We made some small talk as we walked out of Wayne Tower, but when we got outside, he asked, "You want a ride home? I'll get you there in a jiffy." I smiled again.

"It'd be nice. I don't really like using my powers anymore." He picked me up, and ran me home again.

"You need anything else while I'm here?" He asked when I unlocked my door.

"No, but thank you." I laughed when we did our secret handshake. "I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah," Then, he ran. Probably back to the Watch Tower.


	25. Chapter 25

December went by like nothing. I was much better then; I could talk and actually look at both Richie and Virgil without killing myself inside. I know I should have done something like go to Wayne Manor for Christmas, but I decided against it, seeing as how Bruce Wayne probably had a huge party for the holiday season. Also, I still have yet to tell him what exactly happened that day. But I will...eventually. Right, back to Christmas. So, I stayed home and watched reruns of _Doctor Who_ (2005) on SciFi. Which were AMAZING! During my twelfth episode in a row, there was a knock on my door, and I really didn't want to answer it.

"Common, Andi! It's Virgil and Richie!" Virgil shouted from the other side.

Being the lazy person I am, I just shouted, "It's open!" And they came in.

"What are you watching?" Richie asked curiously leaning on the back of the couch as I was sitting down with my eyes practically glued to the television.

"_Doctor Who_. It's the best science fiction show I have ever seen in my entire life." I said, routinely eating pieces of popcorn which had gone stale hours ago.

"How long have you been sitting here?" Virgil asked, seeing how entranced I was.

"About twelve hours." I didn't even have the decency to look away. "I have been sitting in this spot since six am." They could believe it. Heck, they've done it before.

"Hey," Virgil said after staring at the television for a while. "You know, we did come over here with presents. But if you would rather watch _Doctor Who_-" He tried to pursued me by running the package he was holding under my nose.

I caved a little after twelve hours. "I'm sure The Doctor will forgive me missing a few minutes." Virgil smirked when he dropped the package in my lap. "Stay right here, I have to get your presents." I quickly got up off the couch, and ran up the stairs. I grabbed the two boxes that were laying on my desk, and went back downstairs. "Here you go, I think you'll enjoy them." I handed them their presents.

First Richie opened his to find Lil Romeo's newest CD, as well as a ticket to the play. "Thank you, Andi. It's great." he said, and he man hugged me.

Next, Virgil opened his to find a set of tickets to Lil Romeo's next concert, and a ticket for the play. "This is amazing, Andi. I thought they were all sold out?" He questioned.

"Oh, Virgil, when you work for Wayne Enterprises, nothing is ever sold out." I gave him a wink and smiled. "Now, I don't know what y'all want to do, whether you want to switch gifts or anything, it's cool with me. Just do what you want." I then hopped over the back of the couch and landed in my spot. "I'm sorry I was gone so long, Doctor." I picked up the popcorn bowl and was ready to get back to my vegging out.

"Hey hey hey, not so fast." Richie took my popcorn bowl tear. "You still have to open our present." I picked it up from the left side of the couch, and ripped open the paper to find a whole new costume. It was a solid, spandex, hunter green suit an interesting symbol in the middle of the chest. The symbol was a pale blue eight-pointed star with a small ivy leaf in the middle of it. I was completely in awe at the beauty of it. Under my new costume, was a new mask: it was a simple plain green mask that matched the costume.

"I don't know what to say." I whispered, gently tracing the wonderful design.

"You don't have to say anything." Virgil said. Seeing that I was entranced at the new costume, both him and Richie quietly slipped to the door.

Before Virgil had followed Richie out the door, I said, "I wanted to apologize for the uh, that time."

"I want to say thank you. You saved my life." He said back.

"But it was my fault-"

He stopped me. "Like Batman said, 'it was him, and him alone.'"

I felt happy because he forgave me...even though he told me that practically every time I brought it up, it still felt nice. "Merry Christmas, Virgil Hawkins." I pretty much repeated the end of our phone conversation on Thanksgiving.

"Merry Christmas, Andrea Hojem." He smirked, and closed the door behind him.

After they left, I stared at the television, not really watching, just thinking. Bruce...70's couch. Watching _Doctor Who_...Talking to Bruce. And for some reason, Bruce won. But I wasn't going to his party. I changed into my new costume, and pulled on my newest pair of Chuck Taylor's: they were a slightly lighter green than the fabric, and they came up to the middle of my calf. When I put my mask on, I looked into the mirror, and I surprised myself. I didn't look a thing like Andrea Hojem. Apparently I was an entirely different person when I was Arbora. But that was fine with me. I disappeared and reappeared just outside the back of the manor. I took a quick look inside the back door, and I was correct: Bruce Wayne was hosting a Christmas party. It was snowing, and I should have been cold, but for some reason, I wasn't. Stop changing the subject! I shouted at my thoughts. How do I get to him?...The Bat Cave! How I knew about the Bat Cave; I don't know. I just knew. So, I transported to the Cave, and took a second to take in my surroundings. It was a nice place. Right, back to business. So I started looking for a communication device, like the Shock Box to Richie and Virgil. After I searched though many drawers in a desk that was left of me, I found what looked like a slider phone. I slid up the top, and saw a speaker was underneath the top. I grinned.

"Bruce," I said into it, loud enough so that he could hear it, but quiet enough so that no one else would.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I must tell you, Bruce, this is a wonderful party." Some older woman who Bruce probably should know told him. He wasn't actually listening, just nodding. She didn't know the difference.

"Thank you." Bruce said, kind of in reply.

"Bruce." My voiced whispered in his coat pocket. He turned his head to the left, and looked for the thing that called his name. "Bruce," I said a little louder. He heard it, and pulled out the communicator from his left breast coat pocket. "Bruce, I know you can hear me."

"Excuse me," he said to the woman, she nodded, and he pulled himself away from the crowd. "Who are you?" he said in all seriousness. The only person he gave a communicator to, besides people in the Justice League and Alfred, was Gordon. I was no Gordon.

"Who do you think I am?" I asked him.

He didn't know. "How did you get this?"

"Where do you think I am, Hayes?" _Now_ he understood. "Anyway, we need to talk."

He quickly looked at the people around him. "Give me twenty minutes."

"Fifteen."

"Done." He closed his communicator, and quietly moved out to the main staircase.

He got up the stairs unseen, but was caught by Alfred's watching. "Master Wayne, where are you going?"

"The South East corner." He stated simply, walking past Alfred and heading down the hall way.

"Those are Bruce Wayne's guests-" He started, but Bruce turned around and cut him off.

"Yes, I know. But me and my darling little sister needs to talk." He replied sarcastically as he headed straight for that odd piano.


	26. Chapter 26

I held the small communicator in my hand. I was debating on whether or not to keep it, just in case I needed it. Why not? I teleported it back home, and waited patiently for the sound of Bruce's entrance. I quietly stood next to the desk, and was preparing myself on what I was going to say to _the Batman_. But, I didn't get much time, because after maybe a minute, Bruce was descending on an old elevator. When he landed, we walked up to each other: Him in a tux, me in my new costume.

"Nice costume." He started as he looked me over from a short distance.

"The boys gave it to me for Christmas."

"So, you can talk to them now?" I narrowed my eyes at him. Low blow, Brucie, low blow.

"If you're going to make fun of me, then I'm just gonna go. I have _Doctor Who_ marathon waiting for me." I started to walk towards the elevator, when Bruce grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Common Gypsy, talk to me."

"Brainiac told me that Static killed you, Alfred, Gordon, Mr. Fox, John and Wally." He let go of my arm and stared. "That is what I wanted to talk about." I stared back at him. I turned my head, and started to walk away. The only that stopped me in my tacks, was my phone going off. I bent over and pulled it out from my shoe. "Hello?"

"Hey Andi, it's Virgil."

"Hello Virgil, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah, um, do you have any plans for Christmas tomorrow?"

I looked at Bruce. "I don't know. Why?"

"Well, my Pops and I wanted to know if you would come to Christmas dinner with us tomorrow night."

"Sure, yeah, I'd love to."

"Great," he sounded relieved. "Uh, we'll pick you up at seven."

"I'll be ready." I was just about to click off. "Wait! How formal is it?"

"Pretty formal."

"Okay, I'll buy a dress."

"On Christmas Eve?" He questions too much.

I sighed and smiled. "Ah Virgil, what have I told you? When you work for Wayne Enterprises, nothing is closed."

"Ain't that right," Bruce snickered under his breath.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I turned it off. "I need Mr. Fox."

"I have a dress you can wear." Bruce said.

I stared at him. "Hayes, what you do in your personal life, is none of my business."

He gave me a look that made me shut up. "No, it belonged to Alfred's niece; she visited us while you were away."

"Was she as short as I am?"

"Maybe an inch taller."

"Great. Where's the dress?" We both started to walk towards the elevator.

"Spare Bedroom."

"Which one?" We started up the elevator.

"Yours."

I nodded an understanding. We were quiet for a minute while we rode up. We were still silent as we swiftly strode to my old room. Just as we had reached my door, a loud cheer erupted from downstairs.

"You should get back to your guests. They're probably missing you."

"Yeah, probably."

"I'll bring back the dress-"

"You don't have to." Bruce cut me off. "She visited right after you left, so she obviously doesn't miss it." He smiled weakly, and I did the same. "I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, later." He then turned, and went back to his party. I made my way into my old room, turned on the light, and searched the closet. The dress wasn't hard to find, for it was the only thing in the closet that was for people bigger than three feet tall. When I pulled it out to look at it, I was stunned. It was gorgeous: it was a blue halter dress. The straps crossed at the neck, leaving a small circle just above the chest. It was decorated with white sequence that glittered in a beautiful spiral pattern on the ham of the dress as well as outlining the straps and the rest of the top. When I quickly tried it on, the bottom fell just above my knees. 'Oh no,' I thought as I stared my exposed skin. 'How am I going to explain the vines to Mr. Hawkins? I could just tell him. But what would he think of me then? He's gonna hate me.' I sighed. What was I going to do?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

After I teleported home, I looked at the clock. 6:45. I took a deep breath. I have to tell him. I changed into a t-shirt and jeans, grabbed my pea coat, and started to walk to the home of a Mr. Robert Hawkins. It was a cold journey, but I eventually made it around seven o'clock. I knocked on the door, and let out the breath I was holding when Virgil opened the door.

"Hey Andi, what's up?"

"Uh, can I talk to your dad for a second." I said a little nervously.

"Yeah, sure. Come in." I bowed my head and came in. "Sit down, I'll get him." I sat on the couch, and he went into the kitchen. After a minute, Mr. Hawkins came out and sat down next to me.

"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked.

"Yes, um, sir? Do you remember the day you took me home?" he nodded. "Did you by any chance see my arms?" he nodded slowly. "Can you tell me what you saw?"

"Leaves. Tattoos of leaves."

I took off my coat, and let him stare at my arms. After a minute or so, I bent over and rolled up my pants enough for him to get the gist that they were everywhere. "Mr. Hawkins, I'm a bang baby. But to let you know, I only use my powers in a life or death situation." Okay, so I lied just a little, but I don't really consider going from place to place really a harmful power. "And the tattoos are an unwanted curse, and there's nothing I can do about them."

"Why tell me this?"

"Because the dress that I have for tomorrow night, shows my arms and the bottom half of my legs. And I didn't want the tattoos to be a giant surprise when you picked me up."

We were both silent for a minute, and then he said, "Thank you telling me."

"Mr. Hawkins what am I going to do? Everyone at the dinner is going to see me like this, and they're automatically going to think that I'm a bang baby, I just know it."

"Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about." He said in hopes of getting my spirits up.

"What?"

"The dinner we're going to is a benefit to the Center. And you know how I'm a social worker, and I talk to kids about their problems," I nodded. "Well, I wanted to know if you would make a speech."

"About what?" I asked curiously.

"The main theme is that when kids have a problem with say their parents, like a physical problem, they need to talk to someone about it."

"So you want me to tell them a story about one of my worser set of parents?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes, to sort of, urge them on about telling someone if they are having a problem."

"How does that help me?"

That, he had to think about. Then he smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "Be creative." After his wonderful one-liner, he walked me to the door.


	27. Chapter 27

I took a deep breath as I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked nice in my blue dress and matching heels that I found in Virginia's room. Okay, I had the speech memorized, and I was ready to lie to an entire group of people. Mr. Hawkins wanted me to lie. I sighed as I leaned on the couch and waited for him. I really didn't have to wait long, because just as I leaned on the couch, there was a knock on my door. I opened the door to find Virgil standing like a gentleman.

"My my, Virgil." I started to say. "Aren't we dashing tonight?" We both smiled.

"You're looking lovely yourself." He held out his arm for me to take, and I took it as I grabbed my jacket and closed the door. He led me to the car, and I got in the back seat where I found Richie dressed in pretty much the same tux that Virgil had on.

"Well, well, well, look at you two. Not one Burger Fool food stain." I fake teared up. "I'm so proud of you."

"If you three are done, we're going to be late." A lady said sternly in the passengers seat.

"You must be Sharon." I said with a smile. I stuck my hand up to her for her to shake. "I'm Andrea."

"I gathered." She didn't shake my hand, so I pulled it back.

"Sharon be nice. I invited her." Mr. Hawkins said from the driver's seat as we pulled away from my house.

"Sorry, I'm Sharon. Virgil's older sister."

"He's told me a lot about you."

"Probably all horrible things." I couldn't see her face, but her tone definitely said that she rolled her eyes.

"Actually no, mostly good things. Like how hard you work around the house to keep everything in check." She was speechless.

Sharon turned around in her seat and said, "You really said that, Virgil?"

I looked to my right, and Virgil had a sour face on. "Yeah," he grumbled. "I did."

"Oh, that is so sweet baby brother!" Sharon squealed. She turned back to the front with a huge smiled on her face.

"You didn't have to tell her, you know." Virgil whispered to me.

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. I then looked over at Richie, and he had a smirk on his face, and was having a little trouble holding back his laughter. I lightly hit him on the arm and gave him a stern look, and he quickly swallowed his smile. No one talked the rest of the way to the fundraiser.

--

The dinner was delicious. There was a fabulously prepared spaghetti with baskets of garlic bread at every table. The China dishes, that held the head sized serving of angel-hair spaghetti with rich tomato sauce and three meat balls each, had tiny pieces of holly engraved on the border. Everything was wonderful from the crystal snowflake center piece to the decorations of the dining hall in the community center. Everything was glittering and a shiny white that made it look like we were, quite literally, in a winter wonderland (okay, sorry for the uber cheesy line).

"Andrea," Mr. Hawkins' soft voice brought me out of my thoughts. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I took another deep breath, stood up, and walked up to the podium that had been prepared to match the decorations. "Excuse me," I said into the microphone. The people that were chatting and still eating stopped and looked up at me. And believe me, I would have rather taken an elevator over this. "Welcome everyone. I want to thank you on the behalf of Mr. Hawkins and the entire community center for coming. I have been asked by Mr. Hawkins to make a speech about how kids need to speak up when they think that they are in danger in anyway. Hello, my name is Andrea Hojem, and I am an orphan. My mother died giving birth to me, and my dad committed suicide shortly after that. " Okay, so I lied to Richie and Virgil. But I wanted to tell Mr. Hawkins the truth. "I moved around a lot. For some reason no set of parents really wanted me. But when I was eight years old, almost nine, I came under the guardianship of Shannon State. She was a nice woman at first. But after a while, things got very violent. She started to come home drunk practically every night. She would grab me by the arm and drag me to her room, where both her and her boy friend beat me. This charade went for a little over two weeks, and every day it got worse. I was scared at what she might do to me if I ever told any of my teachers at school, so I just kept my mouth shut. The one day, she took me out of school early so that we could go visit her boy friend who was in West Virginia for a day. We were waiting for the subway that would start us in the direction of West Virginia, and she started yelling at me. I talked back to her, and she threw me against a telephone booth. There was a razor sharp edge, and a had an enormous gash on my right arm. She didn't care that I was hurt, and she was going to take me to West Virginia anyway; but I got lucky. A man came and he saw that I was hurt, and took me away from her, and to the hospital. He was so nice to me, and I didn't even know his name." Okay, so a little bit more lying, but I didn't want to give away the Flash. That's just rude. "Unfortunately, the hospital sent me back to her, and the beatings got even worse. But two days after the hospital incident, I was saved again. You see, I was hiding in a cupboard in the kitchen of her house, and I was hoping that she would forget that I was there, and go be drunk with her boy friend. But she didn't forget. She was actually coming to get me when I heard her fall. I didn't know what to do, because I never heard her get back up. So, I just sat there, waiting for something to happen. About an hour later, Lieutenant James Gordon of Gotham City Police, came and pulled me out of the cupboard. He took me back to the police station and asked me a few questions. One of them was, 'When did the beatings start?' And I answered truthfully, and said, about two weeks after she took me in. And then he asked why I never told anyone. And I said, 'That I was scared of what she would do to me if I ever told anyone.' I was a fool. I should have told someone. And if you are in any kind of danger, whether you're being verbally, mentally, or physically threatened; by anyone you might know. And that could be your parents, spouse, friends, neighbors, or people that you barely know, you really need to take control of that situation, and tell someone that will do something about it. Because not everyone is as lucky as I was. Not everyone has a stranger take them to a hospital, or a police officer take them in for an entire year before sending them off to the next family. Every leaf on my arms and legs, which I know you have been wondering about, is one painful experience that I can remember. And the sad thing is: every single one of them, was Shannon State, and her boyfriend Jameson Vena in a matter of a month. Please, if any of you are listening, hear this: If you are being abused, you are going to have nightmares and flashbacks and tremors the rest of your life. You think that you're doing the world a favor by not telling anyone and keeping to yourself. When really, you're not doing anyone a favor but the person whose doing it to you. So, please, tell someone. Thank you." I finished and walked away from the podium. A river of applause followed me back to the table.

Just as I was about to sit down, a person by the podium shouted, "Miss Hojem!"

I turned, "Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Well, you just did. But you can ask another one."

The man that shouted stood up, and walked a little closer to me. "I work at the hospital in Gotham that the stranger took you to. I was actually working that day. And yesterday I was looking through past cases that struck me blind, and I saw yours."

"And?"

"Well, in order for the man to check you out like he did, he had to give his signature. I have it here, with me." He pulled out a sheet of paper from his suit coat. "I just wondered if you wanted to know his name."

"No." I didn't hesitate. "Some things are better left unknown." He nodded, and I turned back around and sat down at the table.

"That was a very brave thing you did." Mr. Hawkins said to me.

"What was so brave about it?" I asked him.

"The first time I looked at you, I knew that you were the kind of person that doesn't let people in with ease."

"You knew I was lying when you drove me home." he nodded slowly.

"You lied to my father?" Sharon said a little harshly.

"Take it easy Sharon," Virgil said. "She lied to me too."

"And my little brother?" She was getting a out of hand.

"Sharon!" Richie said just loud enough to get her attention. "We knew her for about seven hours before she told us. She had every right to lie to us. For all she knew, we could have been mass murderers."

"Excuse me," I said, getting up from my seat. "I'm...gonna go for a walk." I grabbed my coat from the back of my chair.

"Andrea, please don't go." Mr. Hawkins pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hawkins. But, uh, I just-I gotta go." He nodded again. "I'll see you all later then." I put my coat on, and walked away.


	28. Chapter 28

I have no idea where I was walking to. I think I was heading in the general direction of the school, but that's just a guess. After I got a few minutes away from the dinner, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and came face to chest with Richie. The sudden closeness scared me slightly, so I took a few steps back and made eye contact with him.

"You know, you didn't have to leave." He said as he dug his hands into his pockets.

"I know, but I didn't want to ruin the evening because of something I did months ago." I explained. We started to walk together, heading away from the dinner.

"Look, Sharon-"

"I know, Richie." I interrupted him. "But I felt kind of awkward. I don't normally like it when people cheer for me, when I lied a tiny bit to them." He looked at me like I was crazy. "The only thing that wasn't the truth was that I knew the man that took me to the hospital. Every thing else was true."

He didn't say anything for about five minutes. Then, he said nervously. "Um, the reason why I followed you was so that I could give you your Christmas present." Why was he so nervous? "This one, I got you myself."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Close your eyes."

"Okay." I wasn't as sure as I thought I was, but I obliged. I stood patiently for a minute before the last I expected happened. Richie had kissed me. It felt so sweet, and...right. Like fate. He was going to pull away when I gently put my hand on his neck, and kept him close. In return, he then put both of his gloved hands and put them on the back of my neck, and drew me even closer to him, if that was even possible. When we did finally pull apart, we just stared at the other. We smiled and laughed a touch every other second or two, but we just stared. After a while, I said, "You should probably go, I don't want Virgil to worry."

"Come back with me." He said, and it was tempting, but I declined.

"No, I-I'm just gonna go home." He looked sad, but he kind of nodded, and we parted. Holding hands until we couldn't because of the distance between us.

After Richie had gone back to the table, my cell phone went off. I pulled it out of my coat pocket, and answered. "Hojem."

"Andi, you need to come to the hospital right away."

What? "Bruce? Why? What happened?"

"Alfie and I were on our way to a party at Wayne Enterprise, and we were in a car accident. A truck was driving the wrong way on the sky-way, and we hit head on. He was coming in too fast for Alfie to avoid. I'm gonna live, but they're not so sure about Alfred."

My heart stopped for an entire minute. "I'm in the middle of dinner, I don't wanna just disappear-"

"Alfred is dying!" Bruce spat out.

"I will be there as soon as I can. I love you, Brucie. So much."

"I love you too, Andi. I'll see you soon."

"Very soon." I hung up on him and ran back to the party. I didn't go as fast as I could have, but that was with heels on. When I reached the table, I was breathing just slightly above normal. "Mr. Hawkins. I really **really **need a ride to the hospital."

"Why what's wrong?" He asked so full of concern, I swore he could have been my dad. Not Thomas or Jeff, but a dad that was around long enough to actually teach me something.

"My uncle got into a car crash, and he's dying." I looked him in the eye, and he knew in a second that I wasn't lying. Not a bit.

"Okay, let's go. Which hospital?" he asked as he gathered his coat and motioned for the others to follow him.

"Um. Ah...Sir! Sir," I called into the crowd and walked quickly towards the man who had stood up before. He looked up at me. "What hospital do you work at?"

"Sacred Glory." I thanked him, and ran back to the car which had been pulled up. I slipped into the back, told Mr. Hawkins which hospital, and we sped off.

The drive seemed so much longer than it actually was. I didn't speak. I just looked out the window and bit the tip of my thumb. Virgil and Richie tried to say soothing things to me, but I ignored them. See, I was thinking about what I was going to do when I got there. Should I heal him, and risk death; or not and let him die. I had never come close enough to death where I would be afraid of not coming back. I guess the decision was up to Bruce. I was willing, but if Brucie didn't want me to even think about risking it, I wouldn't.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

A while later, we pulled up to Sacred Glory, and I jumped out of the car as it passed the entrance, and ran. I had slipped off my heels in the car, so I was barefoot when I sprinted to the main desk, and asked for Alfred Pennyworth. The nurse there sent me to the ICU, and I took the stairs. I actually beat the elevator. Naturally, I was fast; but when you include all the running I did when I hung with Lance, I was amazingly fast. I entered the room with slightly bated breath, to find Bruce with a few cuts on his face, and Alfie, practically torn apart. Bruce got up from the chair beside Alfie, and hugged me like I was his last lifeline. I hugged him just as tight. When he pulled me away at arms length, I looked at him with tears streaming down my face.

"How is he?" I asked, practically bawling.

"He's unconscious, and he hasn't got much longer." Bruce led me to his chair, sat down, and sat me on his lap.

I thought for a few minutes before I said, "Hayes, I can do it. I really can. I can save him."

"No." He immediately said. "I will not let you risk your life to save him."

"Bruce, if I don't do it, I will regret it for the rest of my life. Thinking that I should have, instead of not."

"I don't want you to die." He held me close to him. Maybe I was his last lifeline.

"Then just enough to save him. To keep him alive." I clung to him as well. I know for a fact that he was the last one I had, I couldn't lose him too.

"Can you control it?" I really didn't know. But he didn't have to know that.

"Yes."

He took a few minutes to decide. Then he said. "Promise?" I nodded. "Okay. Do it." He let me go, and I ambled up to Alfie.

I looked at his face. It was sicly green with gashes at the cranium, and blood slowly making it's way down his face. I took a deep breath, clapped my hands together, and rubbed them until they burned. Then, I placed them over his face and tightened my muscles. I could literally feel my cells tearing off from my body, and going into his. It hurt more than anything I had ever felt. After his head had been healed, I moved my hands very slowly down the rest of his body. I found out that I couldn't control it. Apparently I had to finish the job, and pretty much die. It hurt so bad. It felt like large shards of glass ripped into my skin, and left smaller pieces behind to make even more damage. After a while, I couldn't breathe, and everything went blurry. I choked out, "Bruce." before I couldn't feel anything anymore.

"No." Bruce sobbed, cradling me. "You promised." Then, I just disappeared. He couldn't understand it, but I just left. Hell, I don't even understand it.

Niether Bruce nor I heard Mr. Hawkins open the door, but he saw the whole thing. He stared in horror as I died right before his eyes, with wounds that were on the man in the bed, but were now on me. He saw the small ficus in the corner of the room, actually shrivel up and die, because I was. And he couldn't breathe when he saw Bruce break down and cry for me. He let out a small cry when he saw me disappear. He couldn't believe it. 'She actually gave her life for her uncle to live. Oh, my God. She's a Saint. A real, pure, angel-like Saint.'

That night. Was the first time I died.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Green Lantern and Flash were having a discussion about how cool it would be to be Batman. I am not kidding, that is what they really talked about.

"Common GL, you can't tell me that you've never dreamed of being Batman! I mean, wouldn't it be awsome to just, run around Gotham City throwing Bat-toys at bad guys? It's like the coolest job ever! And plus, you would be a billionaire, getting as many woman as you would want!" Flash said exitedly to GL as they relazed in the cafeteria.

"No. I never dream of being Batman, Wally."

"Oh, common John! When you were a kid, before you were a Lantern, you never dreamed of having a billion dollars?"

"When I was a kid I did." He sipped some coffee from the cup he was holding.

"And didn't you dream of helping people with that money? I know I did." Flash? Is that you?

GL grumbled. "Yeah, I did too."

Flash smiled. "Then you dreamed of being somekind of Batman. Your own personal Batman."

John frowned again. "I hate you."

Flash shrugged, then quickly turned his head to the right. "Did you just feel wind?"

GL looked confused, and he started to search from where it was coming from. He didn't go too far, because suddenly laying next to the table, was my body. "OH MY GOD! ANDI!"


	29. Chapter 29

Thomas Wayne. He was the first...anything, I saw when I opened my eyes. And he just stared at me. I didn't know what to do. So, I just stared back, and waited for him to do something. And then there was a smile. He just smiled. "Hello, Andrea."

"Hello Thomas." I shifted me eyes to take in my surroundings. Everywhere was white. You couldn't even tell where the walls ended and the floor began. "Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are?"

"Heaven, but I don't deserve to be here."

He shrugged. "Other opinions kind of ruled yours out."

I scoffed. "So, I'm dead."

He shook his head. "No."

"Then where am I?"

"Where do you think you are?"

"Well, I thought I was in Heaven, but apparently not, cause I'm not dead."

He smiled again, and held out his hand to me. "Come. Talk with me."

"I don't think so."

"You always were stubborn."

"How would you know? You weren't around long enough to find out." His smile faded.

His voice was a little disappointed. "You know you can't blame me for that, Andrea."

"I don't."

"Then why are you mad at me?"

I didn't really know why I was mad at him. Then something that my last foster father said to me. "Fearg tha tric a taibhse de bròn." Gaelic was his second language. His parents were old school Scottish.

"Excuse me?" He asked.

"It's Gaelic. It means, 'Anger is often an illusion of grief.'" I shook my head. "I'm not mad at you. I'm sad because I never got to know you. And, I'm scared because I don't want to be you. No offense."

"None taken."

"It's just that, I don't want people to come after me, because I'm trying to change a city that has been a certain way since the Depression. I just want to be maybe a teacher in a small town." He just stared as I talked. "I was talking to Mr. Fox the other day, and he said, that I sounded just like you. And it scared me a little, because, I want to be my own person. I don't want to be a clone of you like Bruce."

"Bruce is not a clone-"

"He looks like you, he's nice like you, he saving the city like you."

"I did it differently."

"But he's still saving it."

He smirked when he said, "That's my boy."

It took me a try or two to say, "Dad, I don't want to be scared anymore." Just as he was about to say something, by body jerked forward in a small spasm. "What's going on?"

"You're going back."

"Going back where? I'm dead."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "For the last time, you're not dead. We're in your mind."

Another spasm. "Why is it, every time I seem to come close to death, I always go to my mind? I mean, can't I go to like, a limbo or something? My mind is a very dangerous place." I started to feel weird, so I looked down at the lower half of my body, and saw that I was fading. "Why am I disappearing?"

He just shrugged. "Your waking up."

"Um," There was one thing I had to ask before I left. "Do you ever watch out for us?"

He smiled. "It's all I do." And then I was gone.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Flash picked up my body, and ran me to the infirmary with Green Lantern close behind. He gently placed me on a bed, and then checked for a pulse. It was there, but it was slow. It was, pretty much as slow as it could be without me physically being dead. After GL came into the room, and Flash told him how slow my pulse was, he checked the color of my eyes.

He gently lifted each eyelid, "Her eyes aren't glossed over. And they're green. She's probably healing herself."

"GL, I really want to get her pulse up. It being that low, scares me that it'll beat once, and then stop." He had a look on his face that Green Lantern had never seen on him before. Fear, he was actually afraid.

GL shook his head, "I don't want to shock her, because it might ruin her healing process, and something may be damaged. But I agree with you, having her pulse that low scares me too."

Flash thought for a second, "We could ask Static to give her a tiny jolt."

He shook his head again. "It's Christmas, I don't want to take him away from his family."

"It'd be only for like, ten minutes. And we're right over Dakota, we could pick him up and drop him off." Flash protested.

And he caved. "Okay. But let's make this a quick trip." He started to walk towards the ship that would take them to Dakota. "We should probably call Batman. He's going to want to know."

Flash nodded. "I'll call him from the ship."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"My God." Mr. Hawkins sighed after I disappeared.

Bruce heard him, and turned towards his voice. "Who are you?"

"I'm Robert Hawkins. Virgil's father." He came to stand by Bruce.

"You took Andi to dinner tonight. Right?" Bruce asked.

"Yes. And I am so sorry Mr..."

"Wayne. Bruce Wayne." He turned back to Alfred.

"Bruce Wayne?" Hayes nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you know Andrea?"

"My family took her in for a while. And we were going to adopt her, but she was taken from us before we could." Bruce looked at Mr. Hawkins. "Mr. Hawkins, please don't tell Virgil or Richie what you saw."

"Now Mr. Wayne, I don't lie to my kids-"

"I'm not asking you to." Bruce interrupted him. "Look, she might not be dead." Mr. Hawkins was speechless. "One of her powers, is that she is able to heal. As you can see, she healed my friend here, and she might have been able to heal herself. All I am asking you to do, is not tell them, until I am absolutely sure that she is dead." Bruce had gotten this grim look on his face, that said he was desperate.

"That I can do." Mr. Hawkins nodded to him. "Please tell me as soon as you find out."

Bruce nodded back. "I will."

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna get the boys out of here so they don't ask questions." Mr. Hawkins started to leave.

"If they do, just tell them she's safe." His eyes were empty. "She would never go anywhere that she didn't believe was safe."

Mr. Hawkins came back to be beside Bruce. "Mr. Wayne,"

"Bruce."

"Bruce, if you ever need to talk to someone, just give me a call." He handed him a card with the number to the Center.

Hayes looked at the card then back up to Mr. Hawkins. "Thank you."

Mr. Hawkins gave him a sad smile, and left the room. Almost right after the door closed, Batman's communicator came to life. "Batman...Batman come in. It's Flash."

He quickly took the communicator out of the pocket in his tux coat. "Batman. What's up Flash?"

"Hey, um...Andi is in the Tower, and she's not doin' real well. GL and I are goin' down to Dakota to pick up Static so that he can give her a controlled shock. Meet us back at the Tower."

"Don't worry about going anywhere. Static and Gear are with me. I'll meet you at the Tower as soon as I can." Bruce clicked off, and ran down the stairs and into the waiting room to find the gang heading out. "Mr. Hawkins!" He called as he ran to them. "Mr. Hawkins, can I talk to you?"

"Of course." Bruce led him away from the kids.

"I just got a call, and Andi's gonna be fine. I just wanted to know if I could borrow Virgil and Richie for a little bit." When Mr. Hawkins raised his eyebrows in question, Bruce said, "Kind of like for moral support. To tell her that every thing's going to be okay. And don't worry, I'll be able to give them a ride home and everything."

Mr. Hawkins looked kind of stern for a moment, but then replied, "Alright. Just don't bring them home too late." Bruce thanked him, and grabbed Richie and Virgil.

"Mr. Wayne, where are we going?" Virgil asked as the exited through the back door.

"Watch Tower." He pulled a black cube out of his coat pocket, and hit the button on it. Maybe ten minutes later the jet descended from the clouds. They all got in, and Bruce immediately sped off to the Tower. When they got there, both Flash and GL met them at the docking station. They both led Bruce, Virgil and Richie to the infirmary where I was being kept. And when Bruce saw me, he couldn't move. The bruises and gashes on my face, arms and legs made me look a lot worse than when I had left Bruce. And then Bruce noticed something...I wasn't in my dress. I was now in an Animaniacs t-shirt, and a pair of Scooby-Doo boxers.

When Bruce realized that I was now in different clothes, Flash looked away, and started to cower towards the corner, trying not to make eye contact with anybody. "John," Batman started saying to GL as the boys went over to me. "Why is she in different clothing?" When GL didn't answer, Batman just assumed it was Flash's fault...which actually it was. "Flash." He put on a fake smile. "Come here."

He shook his head. "Uh uh."

"Wallace. Now." Reluctantly, Flash came over, and Batman took both men outside. "Now, tell me."

"Well," Flash started, but GL took over for him.

"Look Bruce, we couldn't really take care of any wounds or anything else with her dress on, so we had Diana change her into a set of clothes provided by Flash. Okay?"

"I would never do anything to hurt her Bruce." Flash said in a completely serious tone.

"I know Flash. It's just...she's everything to me."

"I know. And it's weird, I barely even know her, I can barely look at her when she's like this." Flash said.

Bruce smiled a tad. "She has that effect on people."

"Hey, what happened?" GL asked.

"My butler and I were on our way to a Christmas party, when this semi came out of nowhere, and smacked into us. We were both taken to the hospital, and I was going to be fine, but he was bleeding internally. I called Andi, and she came and healed him. Then she went somewhere that I believe she thought was safe enough to lay low for a while and heal."

Flash and GL were in awe. "Who taught her to be that giving?"

"Alfie." They didn't know who Alfie was, so he clarified. "My butler."

As soon as he understood, he cleared his throat. "Gentlemen, if you excuse me, I have to be somewhere."

Bruce raised his eyebrow. "Date?"

He shook his head. "No. I just have to go somewhere."

Virgil and Richie were at my side. Richie was holding my hand. Virgil was at my head, waiting for orders to help. When Bruce and Flash came back in, he jerked his head up immediately.

"Virgil, can you send a shock through her?" Flash asked, and Virgil shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess. How big of a shock?" He sounded uncertain.

"The smallest one you can make. We're just trying to get her pulse up."Flash said, and Virgil nodded.

"Okay, I can do that." Richie finally let go of my hand, and Virgil moved down to kneel by my stomach. He held his hands out and sent out a small shock. It entered me, and he moved it throughout my body: first he moved it towards the heart, and then up to my head, then down to my feet, and back to my heart. As soon as he let the electricity go, I shot up with a start. I was breathing quickly, and my head started to hurt.

"Ow! Too fast." I grabbed my head and laid back down. After the pain subsided, I sat back up and stared at everyone who was standing around me. "What is with y'all and crowding around me? Back up!"

Bruce rolled his eyes, "She's fine."

"Oh, ummmmm, Bruce. I was supposed to tell you something...I just can't remember..."I ran my fingers through my hair. I just couldn't remember what I was going to tell him. "Uh, I don't remember." My words were slurring, and Bruce came over.

"Shhh, go back to sleep. You'll tell me when you wake up." He also ran his fingers through my hair, and I closed my eyes, and fell asleep. After he was sure that I was asleep, he looked up to Flash, Virgil and Richie, and said, "I think it's time to go home." He placed his arms under my knees, and behind my back, and lifted me up. He carried me down the hallway, when I stirred, and woke up for a second.

"I remember." He looked down at me and nodded, "My play...Jan-January...something..." I trailed off again, and fell back to sleep.

"January what?" He asked Virgil and Richie who were following him.

"Seventh." They both answered at the same time. When they had reached the jet, he placed me gently onto the copilot seat, and turned towards Flash as the boys got in the back.

"Thank you, for taking care of her." Bruce shook his hand.

"It was no problem at all." After a second of silence, he said, "You know, it's weird, because when we were waiting for you, her arms started to heal, and it was just...different watching something heal almost instantly instead of in stages."

Bruce nodded, "I know what you mean. When we were kids, Andi and me used to get in a little trouble. Whenever we would get hurt, Andi would heal it up, and I remember begging her to let me watch. And because she was young, she let me watch," he sort of chuckled. "It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, but I got used to it." They said their goodbyes, Bruce got into the jet, and dropped Virgil and Richie at their houses. Then, he took me back to the mansion, and placed me in my old bed. He stared at me for a minute, and listened to my steady breathing. Just then, the large gash on my face shrunk a little. He shook his head and went out and back to the hospital. He lied to the Flash; he was never going to get used to it.


	30. Chapter 30

I took a deep breath. Tonight was the night. The first night of Jesus Christ Superstar. I was so excited. It was going to be great.

"ANDI!" Daisy shouted as she ran up to my chair in the dressing room. "Oh my God, I am so excited!" She had gotten the part of Mary Magdalene.

"I know! So am I!" We had become quick friends after rehearsals started.

"Andi, I heard that there's a scout here! A scout! Here!"

"No way." She nodded excitedly. "He's obviously not here for us, I mean, we're only sophomores."

"It would be so cool to be discovered though. Oh my God!" She randomly squealed. "Where did you get that charm? It is so cute!" I looked in the mirror that was on the wall at the silver leaf charm that was on a slip knot leather cord necklace.

"Everyone under the stage in five minutes!" Mr. Johann called.

"I'll see you later," She ran off to get dressed.

I was already dressed. I had a long-sleeved skin tone under armor shirt to cover the tattoos (and under the under armor, I had taped myself down to look a little more mannish). It actually blended with my own skin quite well. Over that, I had a plain light brown shirt with ¾ sleeves, and it's v-neckline was slightly lower than normal. I had a pair of pants that matched the shirt, and a dirty pair of old tennis shoes with ankle 'no show' socks. I also had a rope tied around my waist to complete the ensemble. I made my way under the stage, and waited for a little encouragement from the director.

When he saw me, he pulled me aside for a minute. "Hey, Andi." He took a deep breath. "You have a very tough role, maybe not physically, but mentally." I raised my eyebrow. "I have done this production before in another school. The audience booed the student who played Judas, and he had a mental breakdown. Whatever happens tonight, just brush it off and keep going. Okay?" Oh, my goodness. He was completely serious.

"Okay," I nodded, and we joined the rest of the group. After his little speech, the cast waited for the tape to begin the music. It began slow, but when it started to pick up rhythm, the first guy who came out of the stage first, open the hatch and climbed up the stairs and everyone followed. When about half the cast had come up, the ones still under the stage started to pass stuff up to the others onto the stage. The ones who weren't taking stuff were fixing their costumes and preparing. After all the props had been brought up, the rest of us came up and onto the stage. I was the last one. After I had shut the hatch, one of the soldiers was practicing with the whip, and almost hit me. I sneered at him, and 'finished' my costume. Right on cue, people were beginning to dance their way into a circle around Michael Strom, the kid who was playing Jesus. I kind of looked at them funny, and started to walk away to the 'mountain' that had been built at the back of the stage. After their little dance scene, Jesus rose up from them (who were now bowing at his feet), and the crowd cheered. The song ended with a discordant note, and the stage went black. More cheering. When the light turned on again, everyone but me was in one of the corner of the stage, pretending to talk to Jesus. Then my song came. The music started, and I gently tapped my foot to it, waiting for the starting point.

"_My mind is clearer now,_

_At last, all too well_

_I can see, where we all soon will be._

_If you strip away, the myth from the man,_

_You will see, where we all soon will be._

_Jesus!" _I had gotten up from my seat on the 'mountain' and was now pretty much yelling at the group, who couldn't hear me.

"_You've started to believe_

_these things they say of you._

_You really do believe, this talk_

_of God is true._

_And all the good you've done,_

_will soon get swept away._

_You've begun to matter more_

_than the things you say!"_

I was now shaking my head in an undecided manner.

"_Listen Jesus I don't like what I see._

_All I ask is that you listen to me._

_And remember, I've been your right hand all along._

_You have set them all on fire,_

_The think they've found the new Messiah._

_And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong._

_I remember when this whole thing began, _

_No talk of God then we called you a man._

_And believe me, my admiration for you hasn't died._

_But every word you say today_

_Gets twisted round some other way._

_And they'll hurt you if they think you've lied._

_Nazareth, your famous son, should have stayed a great unknown._

_Like his father carving wood, he'd have made good._

_Tables, chairs, and oaken chests would have suited Jesus best._

_He'd have caused nobody harm; no one alarmed._

_Listen, Jesus, do you care for your race?_

_Don't you see we must keep in our place?_

_We our occupied; have you forgotten how put down we are?_

_I am frightened by the crowd._

_For we are getting much too loud._

_And they'll crush us if we go too far._

_If we go_

_Too far..."_

I paused as a tiny break in my song was taken by the people around Jesus to dance again.

"_Listen Jesus, to the warning I give._

_Please remember that I want us to live._

_But it's sad to see our chances, weakening with every hour!_

_All your followers are blind._

_Too much heaven on their minds._

_It was beautiful but now it's sour._

_Yes it's all, gone sour!" _

Again, I imitated Carl Anderson. The director was going crazy behind the corner. He was so happy.

"_Listen Jesus to the warning I give!_

_Please remember that I want us to live._

_So common, common,_

_He won't listen to me, ah!_

_Ah ah ah ah!_

_Common, listen to me,_

_Listen to me." _I fell to my knees and started to 'weep'. _"Please listen to me."_ I stopped singing, and the lights went out again. No one applauded. But that didn't matter. I quietly got down from the mountain, and headed back stage to wait for the next scene. The light turned on again, and the disciples were dancing again,and singing _What the Buzz_.

When Daisy was washing Jesus' feet, and touching him excessively, I cam in and started, "_It seems to me a strange thing. Mystifying. That a man like you, can waste his time, one women of her kind. Yes I can understand that she...amuses. But to let her kiss you, stroke your hair. Is hardly, in your line._" A few of the disciples started to stop me, but I defended. "_It's not that I object to her profession. But she doesn't fit in well, with what you teach and say._" The audience started to boo, but I didn't loose my step. "_It doesn't help us if you're inconsistent. They only need a small excuse, to put us all away._"

Immediately, Jesus stood up and bashed me out. He got right in my face, and I stepped back. After the 'angry look' thing was over, he went past me, and told the disciples that no one cared about him...blah blah blah...emo emo, and they all gave me dirty looks as they tried to tell him that they did care about him. But he doesn't listen, and the scene ends.

And that's pretty much how the entire performance goes for me. Whenever I got up and sang, there was at least one smart ass that would boo at me. Until my death. When I found out that Jesus was going to die, and that I was the cause, I started running around and ranting: "_My mind is in darkness now. God, God I'm sick. I've been used. And you knew, all the time. God! I'll never ever know, why you chose me for your crime. For your foul, bloody crime! You have murdered me! Murdered me, murdered me, murdered me..." _I had gone to the tree that was at the front right corner of the stage, took the rope that was around my waist, and screamed, _"MURDERED!" _as I hung myself. And it really hurt, when those smart asses cheered for my death. I almost broke my stillness before the curtain fell. When I let myself down, and went back stage, Daisy came up to me with a very sad look.

"Are you okay?" She asked full of concern.

"Yeah, why?" she followed me back to the girls dressing room so that I could change into my white outfit.

"Well, I don't think I could handle having the crowd cheer because I died. I would've broken down a long time ago."

I shrugged as I switched shirts. The white one was pretty much the same as the brown one, only it had long white tassels on it. Same with the pants. And a white pair of Virginia's old platform boots. I know, I'm that cool. "If I lose my cool, I am going to screw up the show. I can't screw up, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

She sighed. "Good luck."

"You too. Just one more song. One more song." She nodded, and went to wait for her cue. I started to head to the elevator that was going to take me to the platform that was going to lower me like an angel.

"Hey, Andi," Bruce said coming up behind me.

"Bruce? What are you-"

"I just came to see if you were okay. I don't know how anyone can stand being booed at for doing a great job."

I patted him on the arm. "I'm fine Bruce. Don't you worry about me. I gotta go, okay?" he nodded, and I went to the elevator. It took me up as Jesus was getting whipped. I waited a minute or two before the overture started, and I was being lowered down. I got into the song, and I started to dance a little to the beat.

"_Every time I look at you I don't understand,_

_Why you let the things you did get so out of hand._

_You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned._

_So why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?_

_If you'd come today, you could have reached the whole nation,_

_Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication."_

I was really getting into the song, and I was dancing with the choir of disciples behind me.

"_Tell me what you think about your friends at the top?_

_Now who'd you think besides yourself was the pick of the crop?_

_Buddha, was he where it's at? Is he where you are?_

_Could Mohammad move a mountain? Or was that just PR?_

_Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake?_

_Or did you know your messy death would be a record breaker?_

_Don't you get me wrong, don't you get me wrong."_

Almost done, I told myself, almost done.

"_Tell me, tell me, tell me...Tell me, tell me, _Tell Me!" I shouted the last part as I hung my head and the stage went black. Again, no noise. Then there was the crucifixion. I don't think anybody did so much as breathe that entire scene. After, one by one, we each went down the hatch again, everyone taking a look at Jesus as he was still on the cross that was right behind the hatch. Daisy went down right before me, and I took a good long look at Jesus. "Sorry, pal." I said into the microphone on my brown shirt, before I went down and closed the hatch.

The stage went dark again, and the crowd erupted with applause. The curtains closed long enough for Jesus to get off of his cross, and the rest of the cast to get out from under the stage. The first one to take a bow was obviously Jesus. They couldn't stop clapping; then Daisy came out to join him. I could hear Virgil and Richie whooping for her. Then, they left and Pilate, Herod, and the Pharisee's came out for their bow. After they left, the disciples and apostles. After they left, I came out alone, and I didn't get the response I thought I would. They cheered harder for me than for anyone else. I took my bow, and the rest of the cast came out to join me. We all took our final bow, and headed off stage. We all were patting each other on the back for a job well done as we headed to our dressing rooms. When I got back to my chair, there was a note.

You did amazing tonight.

When the play is over, come see me in my office.

I have something to tell you.

Lucius Fox

I stared at the note before I got back into my normal clothes. I ambled out to the hallway, and as I passed the auditorium doors, there was a man that was very tall, black hair, blue eyes that stopped me.

"Hello, my name is Raymond Fir. I'm from the Castle Theatre in Gotham. I saw your performance tonight, and I thought that you were absolutely magnificent. Not many people can take the boos, and lack of praise with a grain of salt like you. In fact, I have a proposition for you."

"Okay." I said with speculation.

"I would like you to join us at the Castle Theatre this summer to perform as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. The man I had originally play him, got scared and left town. And when I heard that this school was doing the same musical, I just had to come." He had a salesman's smile.

I stared at him with tight eyes. "I don't think I can answer you yet."

"No problem, here's my card." He pulled out a business card from his sleeve. Definitely not trustworthy. "I await your call." He turned and walked away.

I quickly looked around for one of the cast members. "Hey, Michael!" I called down the hallway. He turned around and I went up to him. "When you get home, call this guy, and tell him you want to play Judas, okay?" He looked at me weirdly. "Look, you deserve this more than I do."

No later than a minute after I walked away, I was engulfed in a group hug from Virgil and Richie. "I can't breathe!" I said to them, and they let up. They started praising me, and Mr. Hawkins and Bruce followed up behind them.

"You did great!"

"I can't believe they wouldn't cheer for you..." I got a lot of that.

I said my thank yous, and Mr. Hawkins asked, "Who was that man that was talking to you before?"

"He was the scout from The Castle Theatre. He wanted me for the summer."

"Did you take the offer?" Richie asked full of excitement. At least that's what his voice said; his eyes were full of sorrow.

I shook my head. "No. I gave it to someone else."

"Why?" Virgil asked.

I shrugged, "Theatre isn't my major."

After we had talked for a while, we said our goodbye's and parted. Bruce and I walked out to his car. "Do you want a ride home?"

I shook my head. "No, I have to make a few stops before home."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Why did you really pass up the offer?" Bruce always knew I was lying.

"I didn't trust him. He wouldn't look me in the eye, and he was a very bad salesman." After an awkward minute. "I should probably go before the places close."

"I'll see you later then?"

"Of course. And thanks for charm, I love it."

He smiled. "Anytime."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I had transported to just outside of Mr. Fox's office and knocked on the giant door.

"Come in." I heard him say, and I entered.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked as I came into his office.

"Yes, please sit down." I did and he took a very deep breath. "Do you remember about two weeks ago when you asked me to have a good look at your blood," I nodded. "Well, the pint that I took from you, I made into several different samples. I had the one control, and seven samples. The first sample, I added common viruses to: colds, the flu, etc. It healed automatically; it became the exact same as the control. Sample two, I added cancer to."

"What kind of cancer?" I questioned.

"A general type. Healed. Sample three, I injected into a rat that had liver problems; he's just dandy now. No problems at all. The fourth sample I gave to a rat with terminal brain cancer, he is the same as the first rat. The fifth, I injected into myself after I had a very nasty fall. I healed almost instantly. The sixth, I gave to a very old rat; in about an hour he looked young and was full of energy. The seventh, I gave to a rat that had been dead for twelve hours. Maybe two hours later, he was up and running like nothing had happened."

I looked at him with the hardest eyes. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"I am sorry to say," he suddenly sounded very old. "That you will never grow old, nor will you die."

Tears started to stream down my face, but I didn't notice. "Why would you tell me that?"

"Because when Bruce is ninety, and you still look twenty-five, you are going to have some questions, and I'm not going to be around to answer them."

I couldn't die? No! NO! I wouldn't accept that. "What did you do to the blood, that made it fix all of those rats?"

He shook his head. "I didn't do anything. Your cells found the problem and fixed it."

I finally got a good look at his face. "When did you fall?"

"Four, five days ago. Why?"

"You look so much younger than before."

"Yes, you're cells are fixing my problems. They replaced my organs, blood vessels, blood cells, everything. I'm going to live longer because of you. Probably another lifetime."

I couldn't take it anymore. "Excuse me, Mr. Fox. Is there anyone else in the building?"

He shook his head. "Not that I know of."

"I have to go downstairs for a minute." I disappeared, and when I reappeared in Applied Sciences, I immediately screamed at the top of my lungs. My screams then turned into sobs. I sobbed for the longest time. I didn't notice that Mr. Fox had come down, and brought me into a hug. When I had finally looked up to him, it wasn't Mr. Fox that was hugging me. It was Bruce. "Hayes," I got out before starting again.

"Yeah, Gypsy?" He was also crying.

I shook my head. "I can't die. I can't die." I sobbed into the suit that he had worn to the play. He held me for hours. It took about ten minutes of being uncomfortable on the concrete, to transporting us back to my house, onto the couch. He started to talk to me about school; trying to get me away from the whole 'never-gonna-die' thing.

"I have to tell Richie and Virgil. And I can't lie to Mr. Hawkins again."

"Would you like me to be there when you do?" He asked.

I nodded. "It would really help if you were." He reached over the arm of the couch, grabbed the cordless and handed it to me. I took a deep breath and dialed Richie first.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Foley? It's Andi, from next door."

"Oh, hello Andi. How are you?"

"I'm okay. Can Richie come over for a little bit? I gotta talk to him in person."

"Of course. He'll be right over." She hung up first.

I took another deep breath before calling Virgil.

"Hello?"

"Virg?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh, It's Andi. Can you and your Dad come over for a while?" Richie knocked on the door, and Bruce got up to let him in. Richie sat in the chair across from the couch, and Bruce resumed his spot.

"Yeah, sure. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just...gotta talk to you guys. I'll see ya in a little bit then?"

"Definitely. Bye."

"Bye."

After I hung up, Richie asked, "Andi, what happened?"

I didn't say anything, so Bruce said: "Alfred died." I didn't move. It was just one bad thing after another. Or maybe it wasn't true. If it wasn't true, then why wasn't he at the play? Even Mr. Fox went.

"Andi, I am so sorry." Richie started.

"That wasn't it. Alfred may be dead, but that's not what I was going to tell you." A few minutes later, the doorbell rang, and Bruce answered again.

"Hello, Mr. Wayne." Virgil said as he entered. He sat down in the chair next to Richie, and Mr. Hawkins sat down next to me, with Bruce in his original spot. "Andi, what's wrong?"

I took a deep breath, and said, "A couple weeks ago, I asked Lucius Fox, a scientist at Wayne Enterprises, to test my blood, and make sure everything is hunky dory. The results came back today, and he told me, that I cannot die. I will reach a certain age, and stay that age, forever."

Everyone was quiet. Finally, Mr. Hawkins asked. "How?"

"Because I have two complete sets of cells, I heal faster than anyone else on earth. My cells will continuously replace my organs, and my skin cells, causing me to look a certain way, and continue on living a healthy life."

Richie said in a sad voice. "That's not fair."

"Life is not fair, Richie."

"But what will you do with yours? If you stay in one place too long, the people there are obviously going to figure it out." Mr. Hawkins asked, and pointed out.

"I'm obviously going to have to move around a lot. Get different jobs, go to college several different times. Find new ways to keep myself busy."

No one really knew what to say after that, so we took that as a sign for everyone to leave. After Bruce was the only one left, he gave me a huge hug. "I'm sorry to tell you about Alfred like that."

"You did not have the best timing. But, I appreciate your trying to help." I paused for a second. "So I didn't save him."

"No. He was dead when the other car hit us. But his heart and brain didn't know enough to stop working. You just took care of the outside." He stared at me for a while. "Would you like to stay at the manor tonight? If I were you, I wouldn't want to be alone."

I shook my head, "I actually do want to be alone tonight. And probably a while after that. I just have to think."

He nodded. Then got a small smile on his face, "Can I get a ride home?"

I smiled the same one. "Of course. What kind of sister would I be if I didn't give you a way home?" I stepped away from him, and shot out a burst of wind from my hand that took him back to the manor. I took a deep breath and opened the door to find Richie still standing there. "Can I help you?"

In response, he grabbed the back of my head, and pulled me into another kiss. Again, I didn't refuse, but enjoyed it. After he pulled away, he said, "Andrea...I love you."

I rested my hand on his cheek. "I love you too, Richie. I really do."

"I love you so much," He started. "That I want to be with you when you go through everything. I want to be with you forever."

"I love you so much, that I will not let you do that."

He was confused. "Why?"

"This may only be puppy-love between us. And when you make a decision like that, there is no going back. And I will not let you do that to yourself."

"But Andi-"

I interrupted him. "No Richie. Look, when High School is over, just...keep your distance from me. I am not going to burden you with this."

"Why are you doing this?" He almost had tears in his eyes.

I took a deep breath. "I have to learn to let people go. And now is a good time to start."


	31. 19 Years Later

'Never thought that I would end up back here.' I thought as I sat down at my new desk at Dakota Union High School. I would never admit it to anyone, but this is my dream job. I used to teach at Gotham University. Amazingly I got a job teaching English right after I graduated from there. But now, I was finally back here. Again, I would never admit it to anyone who asked, but I love Dakota more than Gotham. It's an amazing town. Oh, and Mr. Fox was right...Twenty-five.

"Good Afternoon, children." I said to my sixth period class that day. "Welcome to English Ten! My name is Andi Wayne, y'all can call me Andi. I will be teaching this...year, blah blah blah you know the rest. So, yeah, first day. How was everyone's so far?" No one talked. Great. "Well, that sounds so fantastic, I can barely stand it." One or two kids smiled at the sarcasm. "Alright, first things first. Names. When I call your name, say here, present, like I really care. Just let me know that you're here." I picked up a clip board that was sitting on my desk, stood up, walked around the desk, and sat on top of it. "Ashley Banner."

A girl that was sitting in the back row shouted, "Here!"

"Alex Brent." A kid in the second row raised his hand. "Harry Doug."

"Present." A jock on the left side of the room said in a very low voice.

"Jake Erlang?" A boy in the third row raised his hand. "Ria Foley."

"Here." My eyes shot up to the blond haired girl in the first row.

I looked down to the next name, and smiled. "Vince Hawkins."

"Here." The guy next to Ria said. I looked down, they were holding hands.

"Uh uh, no." They were a tad bit confused when I said that. "There will be no PDA in my class. If there is, I'm throwing some four letter words your way." A couple of the kids chuckled. They let go of the other's hand, and I ran through the rest of the list. "Alright, second things second," I grabbed a piece of paper from my desk, and held it up. "Do y'all really want a Coarse Outline? Seriously?" They all were shaking their heads and saying 'no'. "Good." I ripped it in half, and they looked at me weirdly.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

_Two Weeks Later_

"Alright everyone! Tonight is Open House. I expect to see all of your parents." I called to sixth period as they left for their next class.

"Hey, Andi?"

"Yes, Mr. Hawkins?"

Vance came up to me after class. "Uh, can we talk for a minute?"

"Of course. Sit down." He took a seat in one of the front desks. "What's up?"

"Uh...I kind of have this problem. And I don't really want to tell my dad about it." I nodded him on. Oh, God I hope she's not preggers. "Well, you obviously know about the Big Bang almost twenty years ago...right?" I nodded again. "Well, I recently acquired certain...abilities-"

"And you thought that I could help you?" I questioned.

"Well, I was at the mall the other day, before this started, and I saw you on a lunch box. And I-"

"A lunch box?" I raised my eyebrow in question.

"Well, not you per se, but Arbora."

My eyes widened a tad. "Arbora?"

"Look, teach, you don't have to act dumb. I know that you are Arbora. Your sleeve slipped one day, and I saw your arm. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." I just stared at him, surprise in my eyes. "I just wanted to know if you would help me control my...powers."

"And..." I started after a minute of shock. "What are your powers?"

"Electricity."I smiled.

"I'm not the person to help you. But if you want, I got some connections with a certain superhero that can."

Vance's eyes lit up. "Really?" I nodded. "Oh, that's great! Thank you, so much." I shook my head.

"No problem. Alright," I opened the top drawer of my desk and pulled out a late pass for him. "Now, where are you headed?"

"14 C." I filled out the pass. And handed it to him.

"Thank you again, Andi."

"It's no problem Mr. Hawkins." I said as he started for the door. "Vance," I said just as he was about to open the door. He turned. "A lunch box?"

He smiled. "You look great."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hello, Parents." I said in a Scottish accent. It was fun to mess people. "Welcome to English 10, 6th period. My name is Andrea Wayne, and I will be teaching your kids this year. Now before we get started, are there any questions about...well anything." A very wealthy dressed lady in the back raised her hand. "Yes, Mrs." I had set up the seating chart for the parents, on where their kids sat. "Banner."

"My daughter Ashley said that you allow the kids to call you by your first name, is that correct?"

I nodded, and started using an Australian accent. "Yes. That is true."

"Why?"

"Because, I personally believe that in order to connect with a student, you have to level with them. And leveling with them, is like...letting them call you by your first name; at least, that's what I believe. Because that's what the kids do, they call each other by their first names. I used to do it all the time when I was teaching at Gotham University. And the kids loved it. They honestly felt like they were being taught by a student themselves." In the middle of my little speech, I had switched from Australian to British. A blond man in the front row where Ria sat raised his hand. "Mr. Foley?"

"Why are you changing accents, Ms. Wayne? I've known since High School, and you don't have an accent."

I smiled and went back to normal. "I thought it would be fun, and it was. Alright, anymore questions before we get started?" No one had said anything. "Good. Let's get going then."

"And that is basically the Coarse Outline. Any questions?" Mr. Doug raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Why didn't the kids bring this home on the first day?"

"I think that they are old enough to make the decision of having or not having a piece of paper signed that I was going to go over anyway." A woman in the middle raised her hand. "Yes, Mrs. West?"

"Are the kids going to be watching any R rated films this year?"

I had to think about that one for a second. "Um. That's a good question. Hold on." I reached into my handy dandy messenger bag and pulled out a stack of DVDs. "We will be watching scenes from The Pianist. But that's about it. We will also be watching Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy; we'll be reading that this year. Uh, about half way through the year, we will be talking about musicals, and the one's we talk about we will. In past years, I've played Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Poppins, Willy Wonka, RENT, and others. I'm kind of a musical freak, so we spend a lot of time on that. Anything else?"

"What Holocaust book will you be reading this year?"

"I found this new book, called Branded; I found it in Border's, and I thought it would be interesting to try. It's about this girl in a town in Poland, who is part of the only Jewish family in that town. It's written in 1st person, and she talks about what the Nazi soldiers did to her, how she escaped, and what life was like after she fled Poland. Are there anymore questions?"

"How old are you?"

"I am 34. Anything else?" No one moved. "Good. I hope never to see or talk to you again, unless it's about something good of course. Have a good rest of the night." I dismissed the class. "Virgil." I said all Latiny, and Virgil turned around. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He nodded and came over to my desk as the other parents left.

"Vance has discovered that he's a bang baby."

"Oh." Virgil was a little shocked. "That's what he's been so weird about."

I nodded. "Yeah, he came to me for advice, because he saw me on a lunch box? Apparently Arbora is cool enough to be on a lunch box. See, I told him that I could get Static to help him control his powers, because, I really have no experience in the whole...static area." After he agreed, I slapped his arm. "How come you still haven't told him? Richie has probably told Ria already."

He shrugged. "It just never came up. But I think I will, now that they're coming in." I nodded. He started to head for the door, but he turned around and said, "Do you want a ride home? I can stick around."

I shook my head. "I think I'll walk. I've been doing that a lot."

"You still live at Skylar's?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Where abouts you?"

"Daisy and I have a house a couple blocks away from the old homestead."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "Oh, I knew you and Daisy would get together." I stared as Virgil smiled as well. "You should probably get going. Don't wanna get detention." He nodded and once again left for the door. "Hey," I said to him as he opened the door. He turned to me. "Don't be a stranger. The key's in the same place is was oh, seventeen years ago."

He smiled. "I promise I won't be a stranger." Then he left. I reclined in my wheelie chair, took a deep breath and smiled.

I was thinking, Damn, Richie looked good.


	32. Chapter 32

I skimmed over the homework of my eighth period about a month later, when I was interrupted by the doorbell. I got up from the 70's couch, and ambled over to my door. When I opened it, Richie was standing in front of me. "Good evening, Mr. Foley. How can I help you?"

His immediate response was, "Marry me."

That caught me off guard. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Marry me." He was completely serious. I had no idea what to say.

"I don't know what to say. I mean, we've never even gone out on a date-"

"It doesn't matter." He interrupted me. "After nineteen years, a lousy marriage and a kid, I'm still in love with you." I just stared at him with wide eyes. "I want to be with you forever. And I'm ready to do whatever it takes to show you that."

I took a deep breath before I said, "I'll make a deal with you. We'll get married, but I get to keep my name, and there is no forever." He had started a rebuttal, but I stopped him. "Richie, I can't do that to you. I will not let you watch all of your friends and family die. I cannot let that happen."

"But you're going to need someone to talk to in the future, to help you." No! Don't give in, I had to keep telling myself.

"Lucius Fox and I have a contract, and J'onn cannot die." Richie looked sad again.

"But I want to be with you."

"And you will be." I put my hand on his cheek like I did all those years ago. "And we will have a wonderful life together. We'll get married, live together, have a kid or two, and then...then it ends. And I move on, not to the next person of course, just on."

"If that is what you want, then we better make the most of our time." He put a scandalous smile on, and I smiled back.

I stepped closer to him, and started to pull him into the house. "Just remember, I got school tomorrow." Then, I stood on my tip toes and kissed him passionately. God I missed him.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I sat down at my desk the next day, reclined in my chair and closed my eyes. All seven of my English periods were watching movies today, so I got to sleep most of the day. Sixth period was the third time that day that I got to watch the first forty minutes of _The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy_. Let's just say, that I now know all of the lyrics to _So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish_. About halfway through my nap during sixth period, Ria tapped me on the shoulder and held out her planner.

"Andi, can I go to the bathroom?" I nodded, and sloppily signed my signature. I grabbed my coffee cup, and tilted it to my mouth. Damn, out of hot apple cider.

I sighed as I got up and headed for the door. "I'll be right back kiddies," I went out of the room and into the teacher's lounge down the hall. I filled the coffee maker with water, and turned it on. When my cup was filled with hot water, I slowly made my way down the hall back to my room. I went back to my desk and pulled out a packet of hot apple cider powder, and poured it into my cup. I took a quick look at my desk when I threw out the empty packet, and all of a sudden, a hand was placing a ring box right in front of me. I looked up from my desk and saw Richie standing in front of me.

He smiled. "Open it." He whispered. I picked it up and opened it to find a white gold Claddagh ring with an emerald heart in the middle. Surrounding the emerald, were twelve diamonds; on the crown was another diamond.

The ring took my breath away, but I quickly recovered by saying, "Irish?"

He smirked. "Full blooded."

"Very nice." I got up from my chair and walked over to him, ring in my hand. The class was no longer watching the movie, they were staring intently at our actions. I looked over to Ria, who was sitting in her seat. I went over her and said, "I'll only accept this, if it's okay with you."

She smiled. "Of course it's okay. I let him in the building."

I smiled, and went back over to Richie, who took the ring out of my hand, and placed it on my left hand, heart facing out. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and we spun around in a circle while the class started clapping.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Bed never seemed so warm and comforting. I was curled into Richie's chest, his arms keeping me close. He was fast asleep, but I was awake, and staring at my ring; the heart was facing inward now. I loved him dearly. He doesn't care that I was covered in 'leaves', I do, but he just doesn't. I lightly kissed his chest and listened to his heart beat. And that's when I realized that I could never not hear it. I would never be able to live without him.

NO! NO! NO! We've already talked about this. I'm NOT going to do that. I can't. Uh, I need to think. I transported from Richie's arms to the other side of the room where my dresser was. I opened the bottom drawer, and pulled out my costume. It hadn't changed since the last time I pulled it on, about four years ago. I sighed, and started to get dressed. I tied the knee-high Converse All Stars, and put on my mask. Taking a deep breath, I went over to the window, and jumped. I didn't fall far, because I started to fly. It had been so long since I let myself fly. Just feeling the wind around me is amazing. Getting an idea, I made a right angle, and shot straight up for the sky. When I passed through several clouds, I stopped and looked below me. I think I was over Dakota, but I'm not sure. And then, I let myself fall. I felt the wind again, and it was glorious. It didn't take long before I felt it. The hard concrete of a sidewalk. My head slammed against the pavement, most likely crushing my skull, and breaking my spine. But I didn't die immediately.

"Finally," I whispered as I death was slowly claiming me. "No more thoughts, no more debating. Just peace." I let out my last breath, and closed my eyes.


	33. Chapter 33

'Just peace my ass.' I thought as I sat down at my old desk at Gotham University for the millionth time. Over five hundred years, and still not happy. I looked over at my class for the year. They all seem like a bunch of futuristic losers. I picked up my handy dandy messenger bag from the floor (I had taken very good care of it, and it has needed a few repairs, but the leather has lasted longer than expected), and pulled out my files. I had changed subjects: I was now the only teacher in the state who taught Superhero History. And who better than me to teach it?

"Alright children, listen up." I called to them. "Tomorrow is our field trip to the Superhero Sanctuary. Dress like you're going to a funeral. If you don't, then you can't come. Understand?"

I got nods all around. There were like twenty-five kids total in every class. There was bound to be one clown. I sighed as I started the lesson, I hate going to the sanctuary.

"Dr. Wayne! Dr. Wayne!" Atticus Malone, one of my students, called to me after class.

"Yes, Mr. Malone?" I asked, not looking up from my papers.

"Dr. Wayne, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Uh, would you become my mentor? Because, I really want to become a history professor like yourself."

I stopped. He had to be the next one. I looked up at him. "Mr. Malone," I said slowly, trying to scare him out of it. "If you go down this path, there will be no backing out. You will need to make this your only priority, besides school. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am. I am willing to do whatever it takes."

I took a deep breath. "Okay, do you dorm or commute?"

"Dorm."

"Have you any close relatives in this area?"

"No."

"After you finish your classes tomorrow, come see me here. I'll have the paperwork and everything for you."

"I don't get out until maybe eight o'clock-"

"That's wonderful." I interrupted. "I'm here until nine normally anyway."

He was beaming. "Thank you, so much."

"Don't ever thank me."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I stared at my class the next day. "Four of you." I looked over the rows of kids who were in plain clothes. "Four out of you twenty-five remembered to dress up. That is disgraceful. Have you no shame? Do you not realize what these people did to make sure that you lived in a world that wasn't enslaved by another alien race? They gave their lives for your generation. The least you could have done, was wear clothes that weren't metallic. I mean really. The twenty-five of you that decided not to dress appropriately; go home, and do not come back to this class until you learn some respect. You four, follow me. Class dismissed." I walked out of the room, and the four students followed me as the others picked up their stuff and left through the main door. Damn kids. They get worse every year. I led them outside, and took the new and improved Bat Jet's remote out of my coat. I pressed the button, and watched as it descended from the clouds above. The kids were in awe.

"Where did you get that?" Atticus asked, his eyes full of excitement.

"Batman gave it to me." I wasn't really lying. When Bruce died, he left everything to me. And boy was Terry pissed. My nephew and I didn't speak after that. So he was no longer Batman.

He turned to me with a dumbfounded look. "Your kidding."

I shook my head. "Nope. Alright, everyone in!" The four of them got in the back and I stepped into the driver's seat. I loved taking this thing out for a spin. "Is everyone ready?" They all said yes, so I took off. When it's just me, I would normally do all sorts of tricks and spins; but I didn't. I took it easy as we broke through the several 'spheres'. When we passed the Justice League Tower, a voice came over the intercom.

"Identify yourself." The all too familiar voice of J'onn spoke.

"Andrea Wayne." I pronounced clearly and placed my hand on the scanner that was built into the jet.

"State your purpose."

"Oh common J'onn, you know why I'm here." This is like the two-hundredth time I've been here, he should know why I'm here by now.

"Just standard protocol." He sounded old. Almost too old. He finally let us through the force field, and we docked. J'onn met us when we stepped out, and started to lead us down an empty hallway. "When you are in the Sanctuary, do not touch anything unless Dr. Wayne says so. She is the only one I allow into the Sanctuary with groups; so this is a privilege, do not abuse it." We had reached the end of the hallway, and there was a door with a control panel next to it. He pressed the buttons in a certain order, and the door opened. The kids all thought that they were going to get sucked out into space, and they were surprised when they saw a field appear out of nowhere.

"Come, children," I said as I took the lead. We started to walk slowly down the middle of the field. The Superhero Sanctuary was the graveyard where all of the famous heroes (whether they be in the Justice League or not) were buried, or at least a headstone for them. "Welcome to the Superhero Sanctuary. Every hero that has deemed themselves worthy in the past is here. Now, this is your field trip, what would you like to learn about? I can tell you a life time of information about every one in here. So, tell me, what do you want to know. This trip can last as long as you want it to. It can last all day, or we can leave right now. It's your choice."

The kids were quiet for a minute, when a girl named Vivian Sanders piped up. "I wanna learn about Batman."

I stopped and turned to them. "What about Batman?"

"Who was the original?"

I looked at the ground, and then up to J'onn, who was standing in the observation desk attached to the inside of the giant dome. He stared hard at me, and I sighed, "I have been sworn to secrecy. I can tell you almost every detail of the Batman's after, but I will not speak of the first."

"Then tell us something vague about him. I mean, if we're going to take this coarse seriously, we should learn about the originals." Damn that Atticus.

I caved a little, but barely. "The man who was the first, cared more about Gotham then the people did." From the serious look on my face, the kids took it as a sign to change the subject.

"What about him?" One of the kids pointed to J'onn.

My face broke out into a huge smile. "Oh, you don't wanna learn about J'onn now, do ya?"

He saw my smile, and said in the most serious tone he could, "No."

"Aw, please!" I begged, and my smile caused him to smirk in the slightest.

He sighed. "Fine." He floated from the observation deck, and landed next to me. "The things I do for you." he mumbled, and I chuckled.

"Oh, you know we're best buddies." I lightly hit his arm, and he hit mine. "So, J'onn, tell us about yourself."

"I was born on Mars over twenty-one hundred earth years ago. I used to have a family, but they were taken from me by another alien race. These parasites attacked Mars for centuries, slowly feeding on and killing my kind. Finally, after many centuries of agony and terror, a resistance group made a final attempt at freedom. We won by paralyzing them with a special gas, but unfortunately, I am the only survivor. Now, I run this Tower. I keep the Justice League alive for your race's sake." He stopped and stared at the kids. They kind of looked at each other with questioned looks.

"Beautiful speech, J'onn. Very beautiful."I said sarcastically.

"You never said it had to be good, or specific." Damn loop holes.

"Very true. Very true. So, does anyone have any questions or comments for J'onn?"

Vivian asked, "Why couldn't we see this place when we arrived?"

"I have put a protective field around it, so that no one can see it, and it will not be disturbed if the Tower were to be attacked." He answered simply. He waited for a minute before saying his good byes, and then started walking down the path to the door. "You come here too much." He said back to me when he got to the door.

"I'll stop when you stop." I shouted back to him, and smiled to the kids. "Next?"

"Static and Gear." The last student said.

I just smiled. "Alright, follow me." I took them to the left, and went past many friends and many colleagues, and I almost cried seeing their stones, and remembering what we had been through. I always almost do. I stopped at a group of four stones that I always visit. "Class, I would like you to meet Static, Gear, Spark, and Brainwave." They ogled at the stones as I started my tour guide. "Virgil Ovid Hawkins and Richard Osgood Foley were born in the year 1991. They both lived their entire lives in the city of Dakota. At age fourteen, they got their meta human powers from the 'Big Bang' which was an explosion of toxic gases created by Alva Industries. Virgil gained the ability to control electricity, and Richard gained the brain capacity and IQ of pretty much everyone in Gotham. Vincent Luce Hawkins genetically gained his father's abilities, and trained himself to become Spark, the second generation of Static. Ria Grace Foley was a brilliant girl, even without her father's powers of super intelligence, she had the talent of making items adapt to her, and became Brainwave, Gear's predecessor. After Ria and Vince grew up, Static and Gear became full time Justice League members. So, taking their place. Brainwave and Spark protected Dakota until their children took over for them, and so on and so forth."

Out of no where, Vivian said, "What about the Flash?"

A large smile broke out on my face. "Wallace West. A great man with a heart of gold. You know, he actually saved a little girl from her abusive foster mother?" Vivian's eyes lit up like I was telling her a fairy tale. "Yeah, this girl was being taken away by the foster mother, and she refused to leave for West Virginia. They were in a subway station, and her foster mother got so angry at her for refusing to go, that she actually threw her into a pay phone, badly injuring her arm. Wally saw it, and he fought the foster mother and took the little girl to the hospital himself. The doctor that checked out her arm, told him that the phone did mighty damage to the muscles in her arm, and that if she didn't come in when she did, she would have lost some of the mobility in her arm."

"Really? He saved her?" She sounded like she was a big fan.

"Yes." I smiled at the way her eyes were lit. Oh, my God. I finally know who she reminds me of. "Why don't you three go find someone you want to learn about, I wanna talk with Miss Sanders for a moment." When they left us standing there, I said to her, "So what exactly are you? Clone? Distant family member?"

"What are you talking about Dr. Wayne? I'm just a fan." Stop acting innocent.

"Oh don't pull that crap on me. You have the West eyes and hair. You're not just a normal ginger. I know Wally had that same blazing Coca-Cola-red hair. Now how are you related?"

She sighed, "He's like my great-great-great-great-great grandfather. And every one of us has the 'West' red hair and green eyes."

"How many of you are there running around? And yes, pun intended." I gave her tight eyes and a serious tone.

"Just me this generation." She was the new Flash. I had seen the stories on the news about a 'New Flash' before, but I didn't believe it until now.

"Why did you take my class, Miss Sanders? You obviously don't need to learn about your great to-the-fifth-power granddad."

"I came to meet the great Arbora. I've been told that he spoke of you often."

"Back in the day, we were friends." She stared at me with her green eyes, and I matched her by changing mine to green. Over the years, I had learned to control everything about myself. Even healing time.

"You know, you may not realize it, but you have taught every single generation of my family after him. You taught my great-great-great-great grandfather English at Dakota Union, my great-great-great grandmother English also at Dakota Union, my great-great grandmother Superhero History at GU, my great grandmother English at GU, my grandmother English at GU, and my mother Superhero History at GU. I wanted to see what the hype was all about." She had a smart look on her face.

Mine fell and just sat in a monotonous expression. "Well, I'm so glad I'm being judged. It always makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside." She looked like she was going to say something in rebuttal, but a voice echoed throughout the dome.

"Dr. Wayne, please come to the control room. You seem to have a visitor." The voice of J'onn erupted from no where. I sighed and turned to find the three boys scattered, I shouted to them, "I'll be right kiddies. Auntie Andi has an appointment." I speed walked back to the door. When I went through it, the door closed, and I transported to the main control room. I walked up next to J'onn, and stared at the life sized hologram. "Hello, Mr. Stark."

"Miss Wayne," he nodded his head in greetings.

"It's Dr. Wayne, now."

"My apologies, Dr. Wayne."

I kind of looked at J'onn for a second, then turned back to Tony. "You know you're dead, right? You're body is actually, back there." I pointed towards the sanctuary.

"I understand that when you get this message, I will be dead." His image flickered.

"So, what's up? You know I have a class right?" I was trying to hurry things up.

"In my home, there was a locked door in my work space. Inside is a suit; not a giant metal one like mine, but a fabric. It was a one time thing that I made in my later years, when I had Ace take over for me. This fabric is indestructible, it will blend in to the environment when needed, it will also adapt to the wearer's abilities and size. It also has a homing chip to that present I gave you a while back. You are going to need that code that I gave you along with this present."

I nodded in understanding. "I understand completely Mr. Stark. But what am I to do with it? You know I only recruit for Batman."

His image shrugged it's shoulders. "Do with it what you will. I just hope you enjoy it; it was based off a friend of mine." He smirked, and smirked back.

"Mr. Stark, why have you given me so many things, and yet I have only given you one thing? I mean, you've given me your house, your company, and now this; all in return for helping you on one mission? It hardly seems fair on my part."

He shrugged his shoulders again, "I thought you would be a good candidate."

"For what?" I questioned, and he just smile.

"I'll tell you later. Stark out." Then his image disappeared, and I groaned.

"Every time I get a message from him, it always ends in a bloody riddle!" I let out my recently acquired anger, and turned to J'onn. "I'm gonna need you to search my mind for the code."

He sighed, "You know I hate doing that."

"I know, but I'm never going to find the code if I'm searching by myself. So, I kinda need you to help me out here."

He groaned. "Fine, come here." We sat down in the Captain's chairs, and he raised his hands up to either side of my head. I raised my hands, and put them the same way on his head. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started filing through my thoughts. He started with my first year of teaching, and searched for any numeric code that might seem significant. When he found it, he snickered. "You've got to be kidding me."

"If it's 12345, I'm going to be very upset." I said, keeping my eyes closed.

He pulled his hands down and I opened my eyes but kept my hands on his head. "It's 31415."

I started giggling. "I love pi." Then got back to seriousness. "If you want the memory gone, you've got to let me in."

"I don't want to hurt you. It was almost too much for me."

I looked him straight in the eye, and said, "I can handle it. Just do it."

He had to think about for a second, and said, "Okay. But as soon as it gets too much, you need to tell me so I can block it."

"I promise." He nodded, and put his hands where they were. He opened his mind for me, and I was a little surprised at what I saw: there were hundreds, maybe thousands of doors, all closed. Then, he opened one, and I followed it. Almost immediately, I felt something wrap itself around me. It was slimy and disgusting feeling; it had to be the life size parasite. They were all over me, curling around me, breaking my skin and entering. I could feel the tentacles sucking and feeding on my life and energy. I screamed. It was so loud, I think Bruce heard it. I could feel the Imperium searching my brain; going through it like some picture book.

"Yield to me, Andrea." I could feel him saying to me.

"No." I said out loud. Then, J'onn let go, and closed the door. I took my clenched hands from his head and put them against my own head. I fell to the ground, pretty much having a seizure. I could still feel those tentacles in my skin, crawling their psychic powers to my mind. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by people, all looking at me like I was crazy. After the shakes had past, I opened my eyes to find them all, just staring down at me. "Claustrophobia people!" I shouted and my students backed up.

"What did you do to her?" Atticus yelled at J'onn.

"Don't you dare yell at him!" I shouted at Atticus as I got up from the floor. "He did nothing wrong." He just started at me again. "Did I tell any of you to come out of the sanctuary? Did I?" They all shook their heads. "Then go back there. Right now." One by one, they silently went back there. When they were gone, I turned back to J'onn. "Is it gone now?"

"I can't feel it anymore. But you shouldn't have done that." He sounded regretful.

"That's what friends do for one another. And to think, when I first entered your life, you didn't like me." I joked, and he let out a soft chuckle.

He looked at my right arm and observed, "Your arm is still twitching."

I shrugged it off. "It'll go away. But now I have to get back to them. I think we're cutting this trip short. But I'll be back. I have a good feeling about that Atticus. He is going to be the new Batman." He helped me up from the ground and held me steady when I fell.

"What about Flash's descendant?" He questioned as he helped me back to the sanctuary.

"She's gonna be the new Flash. I mean, someones gotta use the suit." He let me stand on my own at the door, and said:

"Your students don't like me now, do they?" He was sad, and I put my hand on his cheek.

"They have no idea what you've been through. And they have no right to judge you. If they say anything against you, and I find out about it, they're out. Of school. I have very tight binds with the BOE, and they never second guess me."

He smirked and shook his head. "You do too much for me."

"You do too much for the world." I gave him a hug before entering the sanctuary again.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Dr. Wayne?" Atticus said after we got back.

"Yes, Mr. Malone?"

"I'm sorry about yelling at your friend. I was just concerned-"

I cut him off in a gentle but firm voice. "Don't say sorry to me. Say sorry to him." I had dismissed the class, but turned to Vivian and said, "Miss Sanders!" She turned to me. "I want to see you after your done with school today. Same with you Malone. Just because we had a tissy, doesn't mean our appointment is canceled." He nodded, and left again. I sighed and dragged myself back to the classroom. I loved teaching, I really do, but sometimes I just wanna leave and never come back. When I got to my empty room, I collapsed at my desk. I could still feel those things on my skin. J'onn owes me so much. Oh, God I was so tired. I laid my head on my desk, and closed my eyes. Almost immediately, I could see the Imperium wrapping itself around me and I shot up. I pulled at my hair, not again. It took me like a hundred years to get over Bruce's death. And that was with sleeping pills. That was also with Wally, John, Virgil and Richie's deaths all around that time. It was a tough century for me. I sighed, fuck, now I pretty much have to overdose every night just to get a wink of sleep.

"Dr. Wayne?" Vivian brought me out of my thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Yeah, I'm fine."I yawned and glanced over at Atticus. "Okay, I really don't feel like beating around the bush, so I'm just going to come out and say it. Atticus, are you in any way interested of becoming the next Batman?"

He was stunned for a second, but then stuttered out, "Y-yes, absolutely."

"Vivian, are you in any way interested in becoming a professional version of your 'new Flash'?"

She didn't even think twice about it. "I would love nothing more."

"Rock. Alright, we've got a lot to do in a short amount of time, so let's get started. Both of you, I guess hold onto my coat. But don't actually touch me." Not quite understanding, they cautiously grabbed onto my coat sleeve. I took a deep breath, and transported us to my third home in Malibu, California. Jarvis had learned not to set off the alarm on me when there was suddenly a body in the house without setting off the outside alarm. "Children, welcome to the home of the great Tony Stark. If you're feeling a little queasy from the flight, just ask Jarvis nicely, and you will receive an antacid. But please follow briskly, like I said, we have a lot to do tonight." I started to walk through the living room, and down the stairs. When I had reached the basement, I took a second to look at the display I had set up after Ace had past. She was the last Stark, and Tony thought it would be a wonderful idea to give everything to me. I set up the 'Ironman' suits in order from the Mark I through Ace's compact version. I walked right past them, and went to the closet that could be easily mistaken for the wall. "Jarvis?"

"Good evening Miss Wayne, what can I do for you?" The robotic voice rang like it had all those years ago.

"Can you pull up the key pad to unlock this door?" I asked, and I received. Out of the wall popped a small key pad. I typed in the code, and the door unlocked. It opened for me, and took the suit out, and draped it over my arm. I turned around and wasn't very surprised when I didn't see the kids behind me. "Hey, Jarvis," I said to no one, taking advantage of this alone time.

"Yes, ma'am?" He answered obediently.

"Do you think you could send some sleeping pills to the mansion? I've got a memory that needs to be killed away."

He actually sighed. "You know I don't approve of your methods of getting rid of bad memories. But none the less, I will get you your usual dosage, and it will be ready by the time you go to sleep."

"Thank you." I made my way back up the stairs and found the chillun' sitting on the couch, nursing their stomachs. "Oh, I hate to do this to you, but we have to make another stop. But that's the last one. I promise." They groaned as they got off the couch, and came back over to me. They gently touched my coat, and I took them to the mansion. They groaned even louder and they clutched their stomachs. "If you are going to throw up, please do it in the trash can. Jarvis doesn't like cleaning vomit from the carpet. Isn't that right, Jarvis?"

"So true ma'am. So very true." His voice echoed through the empty halls. That startled the kids.

"What was that?" Atticus asked.

"That was Jarvis. He pretty much runs the house." I said simply.

"Jarvis?" Vivian asked.

"Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. Now come along, much to see." I led them from the main ballroom, to the piano in the South East corner, and pressed the couple off-note keys. The wall opened, and I went down the stairs first, then Vivian, then Atticus. After the fire, Bruce had changed the elevator to a set of stairs. There was also another set behind the grandfather clock; these were the small back up stairs. When we got to the bottom, we filed out, and Atticus finally asked the question he had been waiting to ask.

"Uh, Dr. Wayne?"

"Yes."

"How is it that you can just enter Wayne Manor and the Stark Mansion, and no one could care less?"

"Because I own them. I inherited this mansion, and Tony, just kinda gave me his, I still don't know why. I also own a small house in Dakota. I haven't been there in a while, I should holiday there this summer..." I trailed off.

"I don't think I'm getting this. _Tony Stark_ gave you his mansion?" I nodded. "But you would have to be more than five hundred years old."

"Actually, I'm five hundred and ninety-four years, one hundred sixty-two days, seven hours, and thirty-five minutes old. Now thirty-six." Atticus just stared dumbfounded. "I really thought that you were going to get this by now, I mean, you're a smart kid. But, whatever. I am Arbora. Yes, I know, it's fantastical and amazing but we really need to speed this up. If you have anymore questions, I'll answer them later. But we really need to get the ball rolling, Lord knows I'm not getting any younger." I continued walking and led them by the past suits. Now there were about ten, not including Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing. "This is the Bat Cave. It will be your base, your head quarters. Both of you." I tossed the suit to Vivian. "Miss Sanders, this will be your Flash suit. I'll get you a mask in a moment, I just need to show him something. Come along Mr. Malone." I led him further to the last case. I touched the glass and a key pad lit up. I punched in a code, and the case swung open. "This will be yours. Jarvis will size you up in a minute, and then we'll be done. Jarvis, you know the drill." I said to the robot butler, and a hologram that I had made of Jarvis appeared from nowhere. I thought that the least I could do for Jarvis was give him a body. I mean, he does so much for me. The hologram pulled out a measuring tape from his coat pocket and started to measure Atticus' body.

"Uh, Dr?" I had forgotten about Vivian.

"Yes, uh, hang on a minute." I left Atticus and Jarvis and went to another closet, a **very** deep closet. In it, were almost every original Justice League member's uniform. What can I say, I inherit a lot. I went in and stopped at the original Flash's outfit. "God Bless her Wally." I took the mask from the manikin, and came out from the closet. I went up to her, and gently passed it from my hands to hers. She was in awe. She looked up at me like I handed her the key to the world. "Just, be careful with it, okay? It's very old."

"Of course ma'am. But, I don't think the red is going to go well with the black."

I smiled slightly. "Go try it on. If it needs to be changed, Jarvis can change the color." She nodded, and I pointed to the bathroom that I had put in the cave.

I took a seat in the master chair, and spun around for a few seconds before Atticus said, "How do I look?"

I spun around and smiled. "Batman looks good on you." He modeled for me. He was in a suit that resembled the 'Terry suit', the only major difference was the fact that it had the original symbol, and it was a light gray outlined by the bright yellow.

"What about me?" I looked over at Vivian, and smiled bigger. The suit had form fitted her body, and turned red with yellow lightning bolts all around it because of the mask. Her long red hair spewed out from under the mask.

"Flash sure knows how to pass down genes, don't he?" I said up to Atticus who had goo-goo eyes.

"Yes, he does."

I just laughed as I got up from the chair, "Put your eyes back in your head, Finch."

"Finch?" he questioned.

I shook my head, "Never mind. Uh, that's really it for today. You will obviously leave you uniforms here, and...I guess meet in the classroom tomorrow." They both looked a little disappointed. "I'm sorry, but y'all just ain't ready yet. Give me tomorrow, and then we'll go out, okay?"

"Okay," The said sadly. Then they went their separate ways, and got changed. When they came back out, I took their suits and transported them back to their rooms. I hung up their uniforms on the door of the closet, and went up the stairs to my room. I took off my shoes and sat on my bed. On the nightstand was a full pill bottle and a glass of water. I popped the top and poured half of the bottle into my hand. I took a big gulp of water and downed the pills. While waiting for the pills to work, I changed out of my school clothes into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Then I crawled into my bed, and laid awake until the pills finally did me in.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"He was a boy!" I sobbed into the shoulder of my only real friend. "A child."

"He knew what he was getting into." J'onn was hugging me, holding me close. Atticus had been out patrolling, like every other night for Batman, and someone had come up behind him and bashed his head in. He didn't make it.

"No, I pushed him-"

"He died doing what he loved." J'onn interrupted me. "You never made him do anything."

"How many young boys need to die because of me, J'onn!" That one sentence stopped him. "I know of at least ten that I've trained. Then there was Bruce, and Wally, and John, and Virgil and Richie." I cried even harder. When my sobs slowed down, I said, "I can't do this anymore J'onn. I can't keep killing myself to get rid of memories. I have probably taken every single sedative known to man, and they don't work for long. I'm tired and I'm old, and I really want to die." My pleading eyes put a terribly mad look on his face.

"No."

"Please-"

"I said, 'No', Andrea." I stared at him. He never calls me Andrea. "Like it or not, we are both here for a reason. I am here to make sure the Justice League never fails. You are to make sure that Gotham stays safe." J'onn always knew how to remind me of my reason for being. "How is Vivian doing?"

I wiped the tears from my face, "She's in the sanctuary. She's far more worse than I am."

"Well, she has a reason to be." I looked up at him like he was crazy. "She's pregnant."

My eyes widened. "Is it-" he cut me off by nodding. I actually let out a small chuckle. "Oh Finch, you dog." I had started to call him Finch for no real reason except for the literary reference. And then I remembered. "Oh, shit."

"What?" J'onn asked as I brought myself up from the floor of the main room.

"The school doesn't allow pregnant dormers, unless their married. Meaning she's not going to be able to live at the University anymore." Then J'onn understood. I thought for a second about a plan. "I mean, she could stay at the mansion. There is always plenty of room. Hint hint, nudge nudge." I hit him gently with my elbow. He led me to the captain's chairs again, and we watched space out of the large window. "She's not going to want to go back to school. It's going to be too painful for her."

"I can help her with that decision." J'onn always had a way with minds. I smiled, and knew that the best thing for her to do, is to finish school. But without Finch, she might just want to drop out.

"Let's just see what her decision is first. Then we'll make up her mind for her." J'onn smirked. I sighed. "I should call them, shouldn't I?"

J'onn nodded. "You know, they are the only two people that can do this job without you being worried."

"Fuller doesn't really like to talk to me though. I don't blame him. I was terrible mother." I slouched even farther down into the chair.

"You were a wonderful mother. If you recall, I was there most of the way. And he only hates you for your genes."

I laughed. "Pierce doesn't hate me though."

"Pierce was always the more understanding one. So call him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I mean, his kids are all grown up, and his wife had passed long ago." I groaned when I made my decision.

"Okay. I'll call Pierce." I sat up, and punched a series of buttons that brought up a video of Pierce at his work station in Athens, Ohio.

I didn't say anything until he noticed that I was in a window at the bottom of the screen. When he did notice, he enlarged the window. "Mom?"

"Hey, honey."

He sensed the sadness, "What's wrong?"

"Uh, I kinda need a favor."

"What?"

I didn't really know how to put it. "Um, I need you to come to Gotham for a little while."

He knew what that meant. "Why, what happened?"

"It's this kid that I had, he died, and I need someone that I don't have to worry about dying on me for a little bit. That's all." My eyes went slightly glassy.

"How old was he?" Pierce asked, knowing full well that he was coming.

"Twenty. He was a student of mine."

"I'll be right there." He started packing up his bag.

"Thank you, Pierce."

"No problem, Mom. You with J'onn?"

I smiled. "Always." He smiled too, and disappeared from the screen and reappeared behind us.

He came up to me, and gave me a hug. "Hey, Mom." I hugged him back. He then went over to J'onn. "J'onn,"

"Pierce," They man hugged.

He then came back over to me, and put his hand on my shoulder. "How're you holding up? You looked and sounded pretty upset."

I shrugged, "I liked him. I mean, his name was Atticus, of course I was going to like him." Pierce chuckled. "But, this kid...he was great. He wanted me to be his mentor. I don't know why, but he actually wanted to be a Superhero History teacher." I was laughing like a mad man. And then my laughs turned into sobs. Pierce pull me into a hug, picked me up, and sat down in the chair with me on his lap. Thank God for my son. After I stopped again, he let me off his lap. I stood up on my own, and came to a conclusion I had yet to. "I think I need a drink." I started to head for the cafeteria.

Pierce and J'onn looked at each other with very wide eyes. "A drink?" Pierce mouthed at J'onn who shrugged his shoulders. "She's never had a drink before in her life. It was one of the most important things she taught me not to do." His voice was an uncertain whisper before they both followed me. They caught me in the hallway, and stopped me from going into the cafeteria. "Ma, you've never had a drink in your life. Not even at your wedding."

"Well, now is a good time as any to start."

"I don't think so, Ma. You taught me never to let those close to me do stupid stuff. And I'm not going to let you near any sort of liquor." I raised that boy too well.

"What do you want me to do then, Pierce? Drown my sorrows in _Mary Poppins_? _Anastasia_? _Jesus Christ Superstar_?" He smirked. Doesn't he realize I was kidding.

"Exactly."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"How are you doing ma'am?" Jarvis said as I entered my room.

I sat down at my bed and took my shoes. "I'm better now. Thank you for caring."

"Always, ma'am. You've done so much for me, the least I could do is care."

I scoffed. "I've done nothing for you."

"You've given me a body, haven't you? You've given me a reason to continue working. And it's so good to see Pierce back in the home, isn't it?"

I had changed into my normal shorts and shirt and laid down in my bed. "Yes, it is good to see him home."

"And how is young Miss Sanders doing? She seemed very distraught last time I checked in with her."

I sighed, "She's doing a little better since our movie-thon, but she's still so upset."

"Well, she does have a legitimate reason to be."

"I know. I know." I relaxed for a second before I said, "Jarvis, I don't think I can teach history anymore."

"So go back to English for a year or two. Eventually, you will get over this, just like the others. And it's almost summer, why don't you go back to working at the theater for a while. You love doing musicals and plays there."

"But, I don't think I can do this anymore. I love helping Batman protect the city, but, I don't I can get through another death."

"Miss Wayne, I have known you for several hundred years. And I know you can do this. You have been able to come back from anything. Just take a little time off, let Pierce take over for a while, and you'll be good as new." Why did he always have to be so supportive?

"Goodnight, Jarvis."

"Goodnight, Andi." He turned off the light as I smiled.

Goodnight, Finch, I thought. I'll watch out for Vivian for you.


	34. Chapter 34

Andi Hojem Series (In Order):

1. Intelligence Doesn't Mix With Nature – Static Shock

2. The First Summer – Fantastic Four

3. The Second Summer – X-Men Evolution

4. The Third Summer – Iron Man

5. College Of Nightmares – Blade

6. The Beginnings Of A Long Life – X-Men Evolution (Coming Soon)

7. I Promise To Be Careful – Fantastic Four

8. Lives Of The Children – Fantastic Four (Coming Soon)

9. Inheritances – Batman Beyond (Coming Soon)

10. Epilogue – Static Shock (Coming Soon)


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